Chapter 1: Meet the Ronin

At the Ronin Manor, seven people were gathered around a table eating dinner. They laughed and talked about their day. A boy with short, blue-gray hair was especially loud.

“And then he ran over to the biggest tank, somehow attached himself to it, and started screaming, ‘Let my people go!’ and I ended up having to drag him out of the store before the manager called security.”

Everyone was laughing hysterically, practically rolling on the floor, as Kento retold the events at the pet store. Cye blushed a bright crimson and sunk low into his chair. After the laughter calmed a bit he tried to explain his actions.

“Well, if you would have seen the conditions those fish were living in then you would have protested as well. It was awful, they had dead fish floating around and...oh, I can’t even think about it.”

Mia tried to hide her laughter as she attempted to comfort Cye. “It’s all right, Cye. You can’t save every fish out there. But...let my people go? What did you mean by that?” Mia burst out laughing again, which caused everyone else to start laughing just as hard. Cye grumbled something unintelligible and dug into his meal. When the laughter subsided he brought up another topic to get the attention off himself.

“Oh, Mia? I found a really nice set of baking dishes at a store in the mall. They weren’t very expensive either. I thought you might like to get a few since someone killed your last set by trying to make a cake last week,” Cye said, emphasizing the ‘someone’. Rowen blushed and put his fork down.

“Ok, ok. So I should not have tried to cook those cakes at 500 degrees to get them done faster. How was I supposed to know that they were going to catch fire? I thought that all pans were flame retardant.”

“They are, Rowen, but only to a certain point. After a few minutes they will catch fire,” Sage sighed.

“Yeah. You should have realized that when all that black smoke started pouring out of the stove,” Ryo added.

“Well, I was busy reading the directions on the box, trying to figure out how long I should leave them in for. I figured that with two cakes in the stove you should double the baking time but since I had raised the temperature I couldn’t figure out how much time that would take off.”

“Oh, Rowen. You don’t double the baking time for two cakes. You put them in for the time written on the box and then leave them in for about five to ten minutes longer, checking them every five minutes to see if they are done yet. And never raise the temperature. Nothing good comes when you rush,” Cye exclaimed in an exasperated voice.

“Oh. Well now you tell me.”

“So whatever happened to those cakes anyway?” asked Kento.

“I gave them to White Blaze to use as chew toys. They were so hard I couldn’t think of anything else to do with them,” Ryo answered.

“Then Mia gave the pans to me to use as a drum set. And I have been practicing real hard so I can be a drummer in a rock band when I grow up!” Yulie interrupted excitedly. Everyone grumbled and held their heads when he mentioned this.

“And I have been regretting it ever since,” Mia said under her breath.

Just then the five Ronin sat up in their chairs as a strange feeling swept through their bodies. Ryo looked at his four friends.

“Do you feel that?”

Sage nodded. “Yeah, it feels like a strange energy is being released.”

“Where's it coming from?” asked Cye.

“And what is causing it,” Kento growled.

“What? What is it? Guys?”

“I don’t know, Yulie,” Ryo said. White Blaze walked into the dining room and looked at everyone sitting there before lying down at Ryo’s feet.

“White Blaze doesn’t seem affected by it,” Rowen stated.

“So what is it?” Mia said in a meek voice.

“I don’t know, Mia, but we are going to find out.” Kento narrowed his eyes and stood up. But as he did the feeling disappeared from their minds.

“Wait, it’s gone now,” Cye said.

“It’s gone? What do you mean?”

“Hush, Yulie,” Mia scolded.

“I wonder what it was,” Rowen said, looking out the window. Ryo followed his gaze and pondered the strange event.

“I don’t know,” he mumbled.

“Whatever it was, it had better not come around here or we will be waiting to kick its butt.” Kento smashed his fist into his hand. The others nodded their heads in agreement.

On the road that led to the city of Toyoma all was calm. The air was cool and the moon shown brightly, giving everything a soft blue glow. The tranquility of the evening was interrupted by a flash of light quickly followed by the formation of a dark portal that ran with electricity. Malix walked out of the portal dragging Sailor Moon with him. He looked around to get his bearings but paused when he realized he was not where he had intended to be.

“What…?”

“Let me go!” Sailor Moon cried, struggling against the energy rope that held her. “My friends are going to come for me and then you will be in trouble!”

“Well they’re not here, now are they,” Malix said scornfully.

“Guess again, Nega-trash,” Sailor Venus’s voice called from behind them. Malix spun around to see the four scouts he thought had been left behind. The portal, which had remained open all this time, suddenly dissipated leaving the moon as the only source of light.

“Let Sailor Moon go!” Mars shouted angrily. Malix replied by raising his hand and firing an energy blast at the scouts. They dove out of the way and scrambled for cover from the explosion that followed. Mercury jumped up and threw her attack.

“Mercury Bubbles BLAST!!!”

“Jupiter Thunder Clap ZAP!!!”

Mercury’s bubbles filled the area with fog while Jupiter’s thunder clap severed the energy rope near Malix’s hand. Venus ran to help her friend. She grabbed Sailor Moon by the arm and pulled her out of harms way. Mars kept Malix occupied by sending an attack at him.

“Mars Celestial Fire SURROUND!!!”

Malix dodged the blast and spun around to face the Scouts. The fog was clearing and Sailor Moon stood ghost-like in the glow of the moon with her moon scepter in her hand.

“That’s it, buster. First you attack us and then you kidnap me. That is unforgivable. In the name of the moon, I will punish you!” She raised the scepter and pointed it at Malix. “Moon…Scepter…ELIMINATION!!!”

Malix saw the attack coming and quickly threw a blast of his own. The two attacks hit each other, creating an immense explosion.

At the Ronin Manor, everyone was finishing their meal. Silence permeated the room as they contemplated the strange feeling they had had earlier. White Blaze had been resting quietly at Ryo’s feet ever since he first entered the room. Suddenly, he lifted his head and a low rumbling came from deep within his throat. He stood and walked to the door while everyone looked at him in surprise.

“What is it, White Blaze?” Ryo asked, standing up to see what the tiger was looking at. He walked to the door and opened it. White Blaze pushed past Ryo and walked out onto the balcony. The others stood and followed him outside, everyone searching for the cause of the tiger’s unease. When they didn’t see anything Ryo tried again. “What is it, Blaze?”

Just as the words left his mouth a huge explosion lit up the sky. It glowed brightly for a few seconds before dying down and out of sight.

“What was that?” cried Yulie

“I don’t know but it can’t be good,” Cye answered.

“We’re going to find out,” Ryo growled as he changed into his subarmor. “Mia, Yulie, stay here.” The others followed suit and jumped from the balcony. They raced through the woods with White Blaze in the lead.

The force of the explosion had thrown everyone to the ground and they struggled to their feet. Malix quickly regained his composure and floated into the air. He looked down on the five girls and sniffed disdainfully.

“Now you die!” He began raining energy blasts down at the girls and laughed maniacally as they scrambled to dodge them. Smoke and dust churned up from the energy blasts created a thick cloud that completely covered the road, hiding the Scouts from view. Malix was unable to see any movement and stopped his attacks to see if any of the girls had been left alive. He scanned the dust cloud with a very pleased expression on his face.

The five Ronin heard the fighting and slowly crept toward the sounds. They reached the edge of the drop-off and looked down to see one figure floating above the road, covered by a cloud of smoke and dust. The figure looked down on the road in silence as if searching for something.

“What’s going on?” Sage whispered.

“I don’t –“ Ryo was interrupted by a loud yell from under the dust cloud.

“Jupiter Thunder DRAGON!!!”

“Mars Celestial Fire SURROUND!!!”

The floating figure screamed in agony as he was hit by balls of fire and a huge dragon made of lightning. He had no time to recover as more attacks quickly followed.

“Venus Meteor SHOWER!!!”

“Shine Aqua ILLUSION!!!”

He dodged one attack but was hit by the other from behind. The five Ronin watched the one-sided fight with growing interest. They stared into the quickly dissipating dust cloud to try to find out who the attackers were.

“Should we help him?” Cye asked, voicing the thought on everyone’s mind.

Ryo frowned. “I think we should wait until we can see who the people on the ground are. Then we will have to chose whose side to be on.”

Below them the fighting continued with the figure in the air taking most of the hits.

“Venus Love Chain…”

“Jupiter Thunder Clap…”

“Mars Fire…”

“ENCIRCLE!!!”

“ZAP!!!”

“IGNITE!!!”

As the attacks hit, the dust cloud disappeared and the fighters on the ground were revealed. Five girls were firing attacks at the figure in the air. Each one was wearing a different colored bodysuit with a short skirt and gloves. Five jaws dropped when the guys saw them.

“Five girls…beautiful…short skirts…” Rowen mumbled in total awe. Ryo looked at him and rolled his eyes at his friend’s stupor.

“I am on their side,” Cye suddenly stated. Kento and Sage nodded their heads in agreement.

Ryo frowned and took a deep breath. He pushed all thoughts of the girls out of his mind and tried to concentrate on the situation at hand. “Just because they’re pretty doesn’t mean they’re not evil,” he said, partially to convince himself.

“Lead me to the dark side, baby!” Kento said.

“You’re only saying that because you only have eyes for Mia.” Sage grinned wickedly. Ryo blushed and closed his mouth, regretting ever bringing up the subject.

On the ground Sailor Moon waited for a chance to use her attack. Mercury let fly another of her attacks before turning to her friend.

“Now, Sailor Moon!”

“Right!” Sailor Moon nodded. She straitened her shoulders and took a deep breath. “Moon…Scepter…”

Malix saw Sailor Moon preparing her attack and decided he’d had enough. “I’m out of here,” he growled and disappeared in a flash of light.

“ELIMINATION!!!” The attack swept through the air, past the place where Malix once floated, and continued on before dissipating into the night sky.

“Damn it, he got away!” cried Sailor Jupiter. The girls stared at where Malix had once been in silence. After a few minutes Venus broke the silence with a loud laugh.

“You know, Sailor Moon, that was a huge explosion,” she laughed.

“Yeah,” Jupiter said smiling, “I’ll bet you could have seen it for miles around.”

“Um, guys? Do you really think that’s such a good thing?” Mars warned. “We don’t even know where we are.” Sailor Moon looked at her like she was an idiot.

“But that should be a good thing because if people saw the explosion and come to investigate then we can ask them where we are.”

Mars glared at Sailor Moon with a murderous fire in her eyes. “But if it attract the wrong kind of people then we might have even more of a problem than we do NOW!!!”

“Hey, guys?” Sailor Mercury interrupted, staring at her computer screen. “I think we do have a problem.”

“What do you mean, Mercury?” asked Venus. Mercury looked up at her four friends with a worried expression on her face.

“I don’t think we are in Tokyo anymore. In fact…” Mercury hesitated for a moment before continuing, “we might not even be in the same dimension.”

“WHAT!!!” everyone cried in unison.

“That’s right. When we went through the portal after the lightning hit it we might have been transported to a whole different dimension.”

“But it looks like our world. If we did jump to a new dimension then why does everything look the same,” asked Venus.

“Yeah, why isn’t everything all weird, you know, like in those science fiction movies?” Sailor Moon added, inching closer to Jupiter.

“In theory, there are hundreds of dimensions and they could be very similar or very different from our own. We might be in one that looks just like ours,” Mercury said, going back to her computer.

“Wait, that’s right!” Sailor Moon shouted suddenly. “Malix seemed very confused when we came out of the portal. I don’t think this is where he intended to be.”

Everyone was silent as they processed the new information. Mars broke the silence by voicing the one question on everyone’s mind. “So how do we get home?”

Mercury looked up at her friends. “That’s the problem,” she said gravely.

Silence overcame the group yet again.

The five Ronin watched with growing interest as the girls finished their conversation. Kento had a huge grin on his face as he leaned closer to Ryo.

“Did you hear that? They are stuck here for who knows how long. I say we go help those beautiful damsels in distress, you know, play the hero and save the day.”

Ryo rolled his eyes. “I don’t really think they are damsels in distress, Kento. It looks like they can take pretty good care of themselves,” he said, thinking back to the fighting that he had seen them doing earlier.

Just then White Blaze shifted his weight and bumped into Kento. Kento lost what little balance he had and fell face first off the edge and to the road below. He was able to right himself and land on his feet, but he hit the ground with a loud thud.

The girls heard the noise as something hit the ground behind them. They spun around to face whatever it might be.

“Who’s there?” Sailor Jupiter demanded as she took a few steps toward the noise, standing with her fists at the ready. Kento backed up against the rock wall and tried to blend in.

“Oh crap!” Ryo groaned. “Now what?”

“I say we show ourselves now and hopefully avoid being attacked,” Sage advised.

“Well let’s do it quick ‘cause the one in green looks like she’s ready to kill someone,” Cye added. The four boys and one tiger jumped cautiously onto the road.

The Scouts stepped back and looked at the six figures standing in the shadows. Jupiter and Mars stood ready to defend Serena at a moment’s notice. The five boys stepped into the moonlight, illuminating their faces and showing they were human.

“Who are you and what are you doing here?” Jupiter growled, narrowing her eyes and ignoring how totally hot the guys were. Especially the one with blonde hair....

Ryo held his hands out in front of him. “Hey, we live here. We just came to find out what caused that big explosion.”

“Why didn’t you just come out instead of sneaking around like that?” asked Sailor Venus.

“Well, we didn’t want to startle you plus we didn’t know if you were a friend or an enemy,” Sage answered.

Jupiter lowered her fists and looked at them with uncertainty. “You still haven’t told us who you are.”

“We’re the Ronin Warriors. My name is Ryo. This,” he said pointing to each individually, “is Sage, Rowen, Cye, Kento, and White Blaze.” White Blaze took this opportunity to familiarize himself with the new people. He walked up to Mars and sniffed her leg. Mars took a step back, her eyes open wide in fear.

“Uh…nice tiger.”

“Oh, don’t worry about him. He won’t hurt you,” Ryo stated.

“Think of him as a big house cat,” Cye added. Mars tentatively reached a hand down to pet the big tiger. White Blaze went to each of the girls and sniffed them individually. After he had familiarized himself with the new people he sauntered back to Ryo’s side.

“And now that you know who we are could you please tell us who you are?” Ryo asked, reaching down to pet his tiger.

The girls looked at each other with uncertainty. “Should we tell them who we really are?” Venus whispered.

“Do you think we can trust them?” asked Mercury.

“I don’t sense any evil from them. In fact they seem to hold the same sort of power we do.” Mars shrugged her shoulders, “I think we can trust them.”

“Well if Mars trusts them then I guess it’s okay,” Jupiter said, slightly reluctant.

The boys stood watching the girls converse among themselves waiting for an introduction. Sailor Venus stepped forward and with a friendly smile introduced herself and the other scouts.

“I am Sailor Venus, but my real name is Mina. This is Sailor Jupiter and her real name is Lita. She’s Sailor Moon and her name is Serena. That is Sailor Mercury and her name is Amy. And this is Sailor Mars, her name is Raye.”

Rowen smiled suavely at the scouts. “Well we couldn’t help but overhear your dilemma and we would be more than willing to help you figure out a way to get home.”

“But in the mean time,” Ryo shoved Rowen out of the way, “why don’t we find a better place to talk.”

“Why? What’s wrong with this place?” Jupiter asked defensively, still not certain if she could trust these strangers.

“Because if that explosion was able to get our attention then it could have gotten other, less friendly, people’s attention as well. Like the police,” Sage answered. Venus frowned at the thought of the police and quickly agreed.

“All right then, where to?”

“We can go to our friend Mia’s house. She is waiting for us at her house, hopefully with food.” Kento smiled lopsidedly. The other guys stared at him in absolute bewilderment.

“Kento, you just ate,” Cye wailed. Kento just looked at Cye like he didn’t know what he was talking about.

“But I only got two helpings,” he said innocently. The other Ronin just rolled their eyes and moved their attention back to the scouts.

“Anyway, Mia’s house would be a good place to talk,” Ryo told them. “Um…do you mind if we go through the woods, it’s faster that way? Plus it is getting kind of cold.” The girls looked at each other, feeling the breeze for the first time and nodded in agreement.

“Kento and Cye, will you two go ahead and tell Mia that we are coming? I want this to be as little a shock to her as possible,” Ryo said sheepishly.

Cye narrowed his eyes at him. “You just want more time with the girls,” he whispered fiercely.

“No I don’t!” Ryo whispered back. “Someone needs to tell Mia that we are coming and you can help her fix something for them to eat.”

“But what about me?” Kento cried. Ryo cringed and smiled quickly at the Scouts.

“You are the fastest of all of us when it comes to traveling through the forest and just think, you will be right there when Mia and Cye make more food so you will get first dibs,” he added, knowing Kento would agree to anything if food was involved.

Kento thought about this for all of one second before agreeing wholeheartedly. “Alright! Lets go!” He grabbed Cye by the arm and dragged him into the forest.

“Uh...we will see you all at the house,” Cye called as he was pulled out of sight.

Ryo turned back to the Scouts and sighed. “Well, now that that is over with, shall we get going?” The scouts nodded their heads and the group made their way into the forest.

Two sets of eyes watched the young warriors disappear into the woods. Malix, who had transported to a nearby tree, had listened to the Scout’s conversation. He was angry that his plan had failed but his mind formed thoughts of defeating the Scouts and these Ronin Warriors and taking over both worlds.

The owner of the second pair of eyes had similar thoughts, but knew that he would need the help of this Malix in order to follow through with his intentions. He immediately began gathering enough energy to form a being to relay his message of an alliance. There was no doubt in either of their minds that they would be the ruler of two worlds in no time at all.