Generations: Crystal Senshi

Savagekitty

Chapter One

I was born in America on the reservation. I wont say which one, but it had lots of trees and the men were able to hunt elk and deer in the winter. I was born Elizabeth Mary White Dove. I used to hate being Native American. I was ashamed of my people, my parents, and of myself because of my skin color. That changed when my grandmother took over raising me. My parents had died in a car accident when I was three years old. It was hard, because I remembered my parents, but I did not know this white headed lady that was to be my new mom and dad and family. She was called Raven Heart. Her small home was filled with what I thought was trash, but as I grew older, I came to know it as art. My grandmother was a front runner in the art world, and she taught me how to weld, how to sew, and how to plant.

I love plants, I love planting a seed and watching it grow into something alive and breathing. I would till my garden when I was angry or sad, or frustrated, which was a lot. Gardening seemed to be the only thing that put me at peace. When I was nine years old, I found I could make my flowers grow faster then my grandmas. My grandma saw this and took me to the tribal council. They did tests on me and finally sent me away. My grandma tried to explain this wasn't because I was bad, but because I had a special talent that needed to be nurtured and loved like she had loved and nurtured me. I saw it as they were afraid of me and didn't want me anymore.

So I went to Tokyo. It was huge, and concrete, and steel. I can say, I was very frightened. I came to my new home, the senshi school. I had heard stories of the women warriors that had appeared before I was born and the lady that made the Earth a better place to live. I came into the school an angry, hurt, scared little girl and left a determined, thoughtful, and courageous young woman. I was 19 when I graduated with me team of senshi. I was known as Sailor Peridot, the public knew me as The Green Witch.

Maybe I am a witch, maybe I am not, I don't really know about that. What I do know is my planet is in trouble, my best friend's mother is gravely ill, and I have to help my friends to do something about it.

It was at least 24 hours after we graduated, and we were gathered in what all senshi called the War Room. It was actually the head office of the planet's head senshi, usually the planetary senshi. This planet's senshi was Leanne's mother. And she was ill. Leanne had told us what had happened at the hospital. We all stood around Sailor Earth's desk. I leaned against it kind of sitting on it, my arms crossed, looking at Leanne who sat behind the desk. She looked like hell, like she hadn't slept, she probably hadn't. Sailor Garnet, the Bloody Senshi, also known as Raven stood beside me. She was actually sitting on the desk. Her face turned to Leanne, but her eye, the fake one, was looking around the room. It was creepy, the way it moved. There was a computer network behind that eye, analyzing, computing, and sending data back to a computer that techies monitored. At the front of the desk stood Sailor Topaz, The Golden Fire, Lionna. She was almost as tall as Leanne, just missed her by an inch. She was so dark, she was truly black. Her hair was a golden kind of color that was natural, which confused me, but I didn't ask about it. It was twisted into tight strands and those were tied back with red twine. Her eyes were even golden. She stood straight and tall, arms crossed. She was always so ridged. Next to her was the youngest member of our team, and probably the smartest. She was only 15 and she already graduated. She was known as Sailor Opal, Daughter of Saturn, Cally. She really didn't have a nickname. She was still living in her mother's shadow, and she wanted to prove she wasn't her mother's daughter. But from what I could see, she was. She was a natural healer, like her mother, probably better at it too. She was also a crystal wielder.

Leanne was saying something, I didn't quite catch it, but as usual, Lionna pretty much repeated the question, "Track down the cancer? For right now, Leanne, all we have to go on is what your mother said, the King hasn't even spoken. There has been no read outs from the computer about any change in weather, geography, topography, and any other -ology that has to do with this planet. I feel all we can do it wait." Lionna put a hand up to Leanne as she began to speak, "No, no If's, And's, or But's, Leanne. We have nothing to go on. You may be the leader, but I am your second and your council. We wait."

Leanne looked so angry I thought she would pop a corpuscle in her head. She blinked and then burst into tears. Lionna walked around the table and wrapped her arms around her. Lionna was 23, I think, she never really gave her age to any of us, I just knew she was older. She was our den mother, of sorts. Leanne sobbed into her shoulder as the rest of us shifted uncomfortably. We had never seen her cry, it was unnerving to see Leanne like this.

I turned and walked from the room. It was so private and like she was naked. I couldn't see her like that. I breathed in and out heavily a few times and shook my hands out to calm myself. I heard footsteps, seeing Artemis walk down the hallway with one of the clothing specialists that designed our uniforms. Artemis gave me that smile that said he needed a guinea pig. I put my hands up, "OH no. No, no, no. The last time you gave me that smile, I ended up with thorns in my ass and a daisy growing out my nose."

"Yes, but we removed it didn't we?" Artmeis grinned wolfishly.

"Yah, after a week and before it rooted in my brains."

"Who rooted what in your brains?" Cally came out, looking from me to Artemis. Artemis practically rubbed his hands together evilly and pulled us both to him. He walked with us, following the specialist, "We have new prototypes for you girls to try out. Liquid Skins."

"Liquid Skin? Oh dear Goddess, isn't that what burned Sailor Coral and almost took off Sailor Yin's arm?" I looked nervously behind us wishing Lionna or Raven would save Cally and I.

Artemis shook his head, "No no… don't be nervous. We fixed those problems, we have them all fixed. And who better to test them on, hmmm? Our best field senshi?"

"Flattery will get you no where, Arty." Cally said as she struggled, "I don't want to have my arm or leg or anything taken off by a malfunctioning prototype senshi uniform. Lemme go."

"Nope, volunteers are needed and you two volunteered. Come on." He yanked us into the one of the elevators that went to the labs under the palace.

I crossed my arms, pouting. I shot a dirty looked over to Artemis. People say he's changed these past years, but I think he likes to stay busy. He was very handsome, but everyone knew if any girl gave him the once over, Luna would scratch their eyes out. He wore his hair short these says, in a kind of roman haircut. He wore small silver rimmed glasses that were perched on his long nose. He always wore a black three piece suit, with a white lab coat over it. He and Luna both had golden crescent moon tattoos on their foreheads.

Cally fidgeted on the other side of Artemis. She was a spitting image of her mother. Just a bit shorter, and her hair was the same silvery white her father's was, though, she had shoots of red, black, and dark violet through the silver strands. The elevators opened into the colder bowels of the castle where the stark white hallways were lit with pure light. We walked down the hallway to the labs and stepped in. I was happier it was warmer here, I loathed the cold. Cally and I stood in the middle of the room as Artemis and the other technician hurried around, turning on machines. Artemis brought a beaker of black fluid to us and smiled, "Liquid Skin. Mini microchips that react to the person's body heat, brain waves, and situation. It can protect against heat, cold, bullets, and blade wounds. We had real trouble with bullets, but we finally figured it out. Here." He held the beaker out to me first. I looked at it, raising an eyebrow. Cally kind of shrank behind me. I sighed, "What do I do?"

Artemis grinned, "Drink it."

I blinked, "What?! Are you high or something? No fucking way am I drinking that slime."

Cally peeked around me looking at the vile, "Will it hurt?"

"No, it would be like the transformations of the very first senshi in this solar system, they transformed by a surge of magical energy bending around them and forming into their uniforms. No it wont hurt, at least that's what I've heard. So, who's first?"

"Cally can be." I said as I sat on a stool, crossing my arms, "I've already taken hell for what I did to my dress uniform, no way am I trying that crap first. It will probably backfire and leave me like some sort of… Spiderman comic throw back."

Cally shot me a dirty look then took the beaker and shrugged, "Through the lips and over the gums, lookout stomach here it comes." She tipped it back and started drinking. She made a face of horror but couldn't stop. I could see how it slid wetly down her throat. She dropped the beaker and started coughing madly after she finished every last drop. She gagged as Artemis led her away from the broken glass. She sat down, wheezing, "Oh my GODDESS, that was disgusting! Was is suppose to taste like that?!"

Artemis shrugged, "I didn't think it had a taste, how do you feel?"

Cally shook her arms out and then her legs, "Besides this shit taste in my mouth, fine I guess. I…wait…huh?" She backed away from Artemis looking at her hands. I got up to see what she was looking at as she started to scream, "What the fuck?! Get it off me!"

I rushed over as she fell to the floor beating at her arms and chest. I could see from her hands and her neck under the long sleeved tshirt she wore, her skin was blacker then night and it crawled over her skin like ants. She clawed at her face as it crawled up her cheeks and into her eyes. They rolled up, turning her eyes black. I stared in horror while Artemis only calmly watched. She screamed so loudly that several of the beakers and test tubes behind Artemis cracked, one shattered. Artemis stood, walking around Cally, taking notes as she fell to the floor, panting wildly. She breathed fats and hard through her nose, her eyes closed. The blackness from her face faded slowly, but from the neck down, from what I could tell, didn't. She scrabbled at her clothing, removing it. She threw them on the floor at Artemis's feet, looking at herself. Her hands shook as she looked from the back of her hands and up her arms. Slowly, the blackness started to change. I stood by Artemis as he explained, "They will take on the wearer's personality, what they feel comfortable in, but still keeping the general form of the uniform. She slowly phasing to the nanonites in her bloodstream now. And they are becoming her. They will also help us track you girls in battle, on foot, and wherever. They can be removed, but only if the wearer wishes to."

I Walked to Cally as she kneeled on the floor, eyes shut, she was hugging herself. There was a sailor collar forming around her shoulders in her pearly white color that was her mark, but instead of forming into the usually bow, they tapered off just before the cleavage of her breasts. The back of the collar dipped in the back, into a point tapered along her back bone. From the shoulder blades and down to the small of her back was bare, and I wondered why out loud. Artemis smiled, "You'll find out. it's a surprise."

I walked around to the front of Cally as took her hands. The blackness formed gloves over her hands, but left her fingernails and palms bare, her fingernails a pearly shade of white and almost pointed like talons. The blackness kind of cris-crossed across her arms and legs I saw. She had a sort of boot on her feet, not too high of a heel, the same slip resistant soles we always had used. She was a skirt that was slowly forming, like the collar, it was whitish pearl. It was very simple, just like on our regular uniforms, but it had no cloth roll at the hip, it was just there, it tapered into a V shaped dip in the front and in the back. There was no bare skin showing except her head and palms.

Cally looked up, an opal set in her forehead. I blinked, stepping back, "Oh man, Cally…"

She shook her head and turned from me, then I could see a tattoo running up her back I didn't notice. It was a kind of dragon holding a spear in its claws. Its wings were unfurled in a kind of way that reminded me of watching hawks do controlled drops in the sky. The dragon looked almost sad, its face looking up to a sun that was missing. I blinked, "When did you get that?"

"Get what?" Cally turned back to me, standing, rubbing the back of her head.

"That tattoo on your back."

"What tattoo? I…oh…" She turned in a mirror that Artemis had brought in so Cally could see herself. She turned, seeing the thing on her back, "Oh my GODDESS! That's the tattoo I've been planning to get when I turned 18!!"

Artemis laughed, "Well, I did say this stuff look the wearer's personality. Wanna try it, Whitedove?"

I pursed my lip and grabbed the vile he held out to me, "Why the hell not." I toasted Artemis and slid the vile over my lips. The liquid seemed to burst from the vile without me having to tip it back. It tingled over my tongue and crawled, literally, down my throat, like a living entity. I felt it forcing itself down both my windpipe and esophagus. I had no control over my body for the next minute for so and I writhed on the floor of the lab, screaming, arching my back and feeling ever nerve of my body scream as if exposed to salt water and lemon juice.

Finally, I felt it free me and I lay on my stomach on the floor for many long minutes. I was panting, I was aware of suddenly, as if I ran for hours. My muscles ached and my head hurt. She got up and looked at the mirror. It removed my shirt and skirt so I could see my uniform. It was the same as Cally's in the aspect of the collar, skirt, and the opening in the back, though, mine seemed speckled, it wasn't smooth to the touch. My colors were a very light green, almost new leaf green, and my feet were bare. That I understood, because I needed a connection to the soil for my powers to work. So my uniform was kind of cut off at the calf, and at the wrist, almost as if it shank in the wash. Though, at the edging of the cut off was cuffed in the same green as my collar and skirt. My hair had been braided and set in pigtails over my shoulders, like my Grandma used to wear when she was younger, and my mother too, I had seen pictures. My bangs fell over it, but I could still see the inset of the peridot stone in my forehead. My nails, being a rounded square tip that was short, just how I always wore them, were the same light green as my uniform, so were my toenails. I turned and very lightly, in the same green, was a tattoo on my back too. From the small of my back, five vines sprouted and crawled up my back and sprouted into five half opened roses in five different colors, and I knew. They were the colors of my friends and the middle one was for my Grandma and Mother. It was the white rose. I smiled and turned to Cally. I flexed my muscles and stretched my legs, "It feels like I'm wearing nothing."

"Basically, you aren't. It's kind of liquid latex, if you have ever seen anyone painted with it. Your skin can breath, you're naked, but you're covered."

"The better to move in, that's all you had to say. I could have done without the naked part." I winced and reached for my clothing, "Will we always have out outfits in the On position like this? I mean, I knew were senshi, but some on… its kinda… a burden."

Artemis gave me a look at the last word of what I said, "Senshi duties should never be a burden, Whitedove. If it is, you're in the wrong line of work. To answer your question, no, To switch the Liquid Skin off, just tell it to back off. Its apart of you now. You control it. But please, put your clothes on first before you try."

I chuckled, pulling on my skirt and shirt as Cally did the same. I closed my eyes, searching myself. Senshi were taught in training the art of meditation. A time to be calm and at peace, even if things were blowing up around you. I found that new part of myself that was my uniform and told it, 'Please, It is time for me to be me.' It understood and lay dormant until it was needed again. I opened my eyes and looked down at my arms. It was gone, I was me. I lifted my shirt, the tattoo was still there though. I shrugged, it was pretty and I liked it. Cally was pouting. I glared at her, "What is it?"

She looked at me, "Well… I… uh… I liked the feeling of being naked."

I rolled my eyes at her, "We can try it out in the training room, lets go test these things before the others have a go, shall we?"

"Alrighty." Cally grabbed her bag and trotted from the room. I stopped by Artemis, "Good job, Arty. Where did you guys get the idea for this anyway?"

He actually snorted and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, "Spiderman."