"Princess, have you seen Seira?" Seira's beautiful adoptive mother, Aya, swiftly swam up to Orca as she exited her bedroom. Aya was a refugee with auburn hair and a magenta tail. Oki knew Aya had always wanted a daughter as she talked about it non-stop, and she was amazing with kids!
"I saw her last night, just before we went to bed. Maybe she is playing a game like hide-and-seek?" This confused Orca as she was sure she had seen the little orange mermaid enter one of the guest rooms last night, which the Aqua Senshi stayed in a while at the palace.
"No. I can't find her anywhere in the palace. Seira wouldn't pull a prank like that on me." Aya assured her Princess how serious this was.
"I'll check with the others. Don't fret. Seira couldn't have gotten far." Despite being a mermaid, the Princess of the Crystal Sea knew Seira was not the strongest swimmer. Fearing what their queen might say when she finds Seira gone, the Aqua Senshi spread out to search. Even their pets communicated with other ocean life to watch for the short Princess.
Seira's adoptive parents went into a depression when it was apparent their precious offspring could not be found. All the Aqua Senshi's nails turned blue and lilac. "Where could she have gone?" Aya sobbed as servants reassured her they would find her daughter.
Surprisingly, when Oki found out, she revealed something even worse, "Neo-Queen Serenity has informed me the Princess of Neptune is amongst the missing too."
"Alexis...Holly must be worried sick." Karen shook her head in sadness.
"Da..." Noel agreed, using the Russian word for 'yes.'
"Hopefully, whoever took Alexis and Seira hasn't hurt them." Queen of the Crystal Sea sat on her throne, brooding. Most of the palace had no idea where Alexis and Seira could have been taken, but the Aqua Senshi had a pretty good idea! As rare as it is for her to share information, Christen had sent the mermaids what she could find out about Sirenum Scopuli, the island home to Sirens!
Even being an island, there was nothing much there, just high mountain peaks, perfect homes for avian creatures. Right now, the two girls lay together, unconscious, on the beachfront part of the island. Seira came to first and glanced around.
"Alexis? Hey! Alexis, wake up!" Seira tried to rouse the brunette. To help, Seira, in her human form, walked over to cup seawater in her hands with her nails, a blue and lilac swirl, and splashed it on Alexis's face!
"I'm up! I'm up! Oh...Hi, Seira." Alexis took a second to get her bearings.
"Hi. Sorry about the seawater wake-up call." Seira smiled apologetically.
"No worries. Seawater is my element. " Alexis began wringing water out of her hair. "Where are we?"
"I was hoping you could tell me."
Spotting the mountains, an idea struck Alexis! "We should be able to get a great vantage point from there. We don't even have to go up all the way."
While this seemed the most obvious and good plan, the creative mermaid felt apprehensive. "This isn't a good idea.," Seira commented as they set foot on a mountain path.
"Why not?" Alexis seemed angered by this as she did not like it when her ideas were not considered an option.
"It looks hazardous," Seira admitted.
"We won't go that high. I promise." Alexis vowed, clasping Seria's hands between hers.
Even as her gut was screaming at her to warn Neptune's guardian of something, Seira did not see any danger and kept silent as they climbed. Princess of the Indian Ocean wanted to transform, at least to give them some protection, but screamed when she opened her locket, "My pearl is gone!"
"What?!" Alexis whirled around to see the girl's empty necklace trinket.
"I can't lose it!" Seira began to freak out.
"Calm down. We will see it once we scan the beach from above." Alexis reasoned, hugging her companion.
"OK. I guess I'll...stay behind you?"
"Yeah!" Alexis reached for her pendant but could not feel it. She looked down her shirt... "Ah, my pendant is gone too!"
"Can I lose my mind now?"
"No panicking! The faster we trek, the quicker we regain our transforming tools." So, following Alexis, the young girls reached a ledge where they could look out over the beach; it looked a lot thinner of a strip than they thought.
"I don't see them!" Seira's eyes frantically darted over the sands, but nothing caught her eye.
"Let me try something..." Alexis pulled what looked like a small glass shard from her pocket.
Using the sun, she bounced its rays across the land!
"What are you doing?" Seira asked skeptically.
"Dawn taught me how to use the sun's rays to reflect off objects," Alexis explained.
While the amber-eyed mermaid is amazed at this ingenious idea from Neptune's daughter, it doesn't aid them in finding their items. This caused Seira's nails to flash blue, lilac, and orange!
"Everyone is going to be so mad. I lost my pearl, and we won't be Senshi if we can't transform!" Seira bawled.
"We can't just give up!" Alexis tries to remain calm, but she is losing hope, too.
"But our things could be anywhere!" Seira bemoaned.
"Then we will search everything. What's that?"
"What's...what?"
"There. On your top." Alexis pointed.
Pulling on the puffy, yellow left sleeve of her orange dress, Seira noticed a few tiny, fluffy, white feathers with black streaks had gotten stuck in the fabric!
"I think they're feathers..." Seira stared at Alexis in a slightly condescending way.
"Don't look at me like that! I know they are feathers, but where did they come from?!" Alexis snapped.
Seira shrugged, "Your guess is as good as mine."
"I understand if you don't want to go any higher, but I can't return to the beach knowing my pendant isn't there. So, I'm going to keep going." Alexis fixed Seira with her most determined gaze.
Thoughtfully, Seira looked back down at the beach, then whispered, "There is no reason to go back down...Looks like I don't have any other option..."
Both Princesses used what they knew to scale the rest of the cliff!
"Look!" Alexis pointed to a giant nest, much too big for any bird.
However, it looked empty, but as Seira squinted, she spotted her pearl and Alexis's pedant tucked in among the branches! In excitement and relief, her nails shined yellow.
"Wow! Alexis, how did you know what to do and where to go?!" Seira gasped in joy.
"If my friends can always think of new ways to solve problems, I can also," Alexis stated proudly.
"Maybe I should learn from my friends." Carelessly, Seira slid into the nest to grab what was rightfully theirs.
"Look out!" Alexis called, and she dodged, but Harmony attacked the aquatic girl, one of the Sirens!
"What are you doing in me and my sister's nest?!" Harmony flapped her purple wings to get Seira to back away.
"What are you doing with our stuff?!" Alexis snapped back.
"Without your silly, little charms, you can't overpower my sisters and me," Harmony smirked mockingly.
"Even without my pendant, I can still fight!" Alexis summoned a small amount of seawater to hit Harmony in the back of the head!
As dedicated as she is to her role as Neo-Super Sailor Neptune, Alexis's powers are only as effective if she is transformed. Unable to use her water without her pearl, Seira still drew her sword with her nails tinged red!
"You little girls better be careful of where you are. This is MY island, and I can knock you off this cliff without effort." Harmony warned, spreading her arms and wings to look intimidating, but that did not phase the two girls.
"We're not little. You better be the careful one!" Seira threatened, holding her blade to Harmony's face, though the girl would not strike her unless necessary.
Suddenly, Harmony's identical twin sister, Destiny, grabbed Seira from behind and lifted her off the cliff and into the air!
"How high a drop kills a mermaid?" Destiny taunted.
"How does THIS feel?!" Losing her temper, the amber-eyed girl used her sword to stab Destiny's wings, which, while that did make the bird-like woman let go, she scratched Seira's arms with her talons by accident.
Thankfully, they dived into the water to avoid hitting it at the wrong angle and injuring themselves. Now, the Indian Ocean princess could escape as she had transformed into a mermaid but could not leave Alexis. So, she made the journey back up the deadly peaks. To her horror, the brunette was lying in the nest! Was she sleeping?!
Seira raced to awaken her, but she heard Harmony and Destiny start singing! Seira tried to sing over them, but her voice alone failed. Thus, she fell into the same enchanted sleep as her friend, and her nails were clear to prove she was truly asleep.
"Hope the others have an easier time wrangling their targets," Destiny commented.
"Once they are here, they can't leave anyway." Harmony put a scaly hand on her sister's shoulder.
Whatever that meant, it could not be good...