The Lone Sailor Soldier - Part One
May lifted her face to the warm sun and closed her eyes. She breathed in deeply - the scent of flowers and fresh water filled her.
Behind her, her friends Jessica, Molly, Aurora, and Evelyn were laughing. May turned around and surveyed the scene. It was a beautiful place - a clear blue lake surrounded by lush green plants and pink flowers.
"Come on, May! Jump in!" called Jessica, waving from the lake. May grinned. Of course she would - there was nothing May liked to do more than swim.
Suddenly, she found herself high above the scene, on a cliff. Her friends were in the lake below, waving. She waved back, then lifted her face skywards again. She took a deep breath, and jumped.
May's laughter rang out clear as bells as she floated from the cliff and through the warm air. She turned over and over, her long brown hair wrapping around her limbs like ribbons. May opened her eyes just before she hit the water.
Under water, it was quiet, and the world was dark blue. May let herself go limp, floating deeper and deeper into the lake, her friends' legs kicking above her. She laughed, and bubbles formed out of her mouth. She didn't even think it odd that she could breathe down here.
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Someone was shaking her. Hard. May's head flopped against the pillow.
"Get off," she said, trying to grab the covers and pull them over her face. "I don't have school today."
"Wake up, May! It's an emergency!" It was Aurora.
May sat upright. She wasn't at home, in her bedroom like she thought. She was back in the Moon Palace, back in her own time.
"Aurora! What's going on?"
"The Moon Kingdom is under attack!"
May was up in a flash. She didn't even bother changing out of her nightgown - apparently, Aurora hadn't either. The two girls raced down the hall to the throne room, where their queen, Neo Queen Serenity, awaited.
"Who is attacking the Moon Kingdom?" May asked, before anyone else could say a word. "We've been in peace for so long."
Neo Queen Serenity gestured to the large ornate crystal ball which floated in the center of the room. It displayed the scenes of the Kingdom in chaos. May rushed up to the crystal. "Monsters... evil entities! But how? We restored peace to the Universe, in the past..."
"Somehow the evil which was vanquished in the past has come to their future," Serenity said sadly. "We do need to figure this out, but the first thing to do is cease the violence."
"Where's Jessica and the others?" May asked.
"I've already sent them to the Kingdom. Go now, Sailor Senshi - strength be with you."
May looked at Aurora, and they nodded. Holding out their hands, their transformation lockets appeared.
"MOONBURST COSMIC POWER MAKE-UP!" Aurora called, immediately followed by May, who called, "AQUA COSMIC POWER MAKE-UP!"
In a burst of sky blue and deep blue light, Aurora and May transformed into their Sailor Senshi forms - Sailor Moonburst and Sailor Aqua, respectively. Without hesitating, they broke into a run, and left the castle.
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"This is the end of your peace, Sailor Senshi!" screeched a hideous being that appeared to be half scorpion and half melting. It lifted its quivering scorpion's tail, and shot acidic mud at the Senshi.
"Eek!" Sailor Wind, the leader, yelped as she pushed her teammates, Sailor Fire and Sailor Earth, out of the way. "Watch out for that stuff!"
Aqua and Moonburst rushed to the battle, which was on the outskirts of the Kingdom, just in time for the mud to land at their feet. They both skidded to a halt, and watched as a deep hole was burnt in the soil.
"You guys started the party without us?" Aqua said.
"You're just in time," Wind replied, ignoring Aqua's crack. "Fire, Earth, and I have been battling this Mud Scorpion ever since we got here. We need to use the Rainbow Elemental Sceptre on it."
"Lead on," Moonburst said. She was looking over their shoulders - there were hundreds of monsters terrorizing the Kingdom and its people, and they couldn't afford to be held up by this one.
Sailor Wind held out her hand, and there was a faint white glimmer above her palm. It formed into a medium-sized sceptre with a white jeweled handle and a prismatic white sphere on top. Fire, Earth, Moonburst, and Aqua quickly took their positions on either side of Wind, each with their hands touching the Sceptre. Then, in unison, they called, "Rainbow Elemental Energy Kiss!!"
With that, the Sceptre exploded in a flash of gold and rainbow light. The light burst towards the Mud Scoprion in prismatic shards, and the beast howled as he was pierced right through. As more and more shards of light blasted the monster, it became blindingly bright, and finally there was a deafening explosion.
When her vision cleared, Aqua looked around. "Great, it's gone! But..." she said, noticing the monsters within the Kingdom and sounding dismayed, "There are still tons to deal with in there."
Sailor Fire did not want to waste a moment. "Let's go," she said. "I can sense great evil coming from the center of the Kingdom... and it's not from those monsters."
They ran through the front gates and into the Kingdom as a tight group. They were confronted by yet another monster that had insect-like attributes, this time it was a flying wasp.
"I can't stand bees," Aqua said. She held out both her hands, and a streak of blue flashed between them, forming her Teardrop Staff. She gripped it tightly. "Let's vanquish this one quickly!"
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In the center of the Moon Kingdom, as Sailor Fire had predicted, an entity above the petty monsters awaited the Senshis' arrival. Usually a well-lit place, thanks to decorative lamps, storefronts, and restaurants, the Kingdom center was darkened, lit only dimly by a half-moon struggling through stormy clouds. A darker figure floated above an orante fountain, turned off at the moment.
One would not be able to see this, but the figure was smiling. It had been a long time since anything this interesting had happened.
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Meanwhile, the Senshi were still battling the giant wasp. "Rainstorm Deluge!!" Aqua cried, and the sky above them became grey with thick clouds - even moreso than it already was. Rain suddenly began to pour down, slanting towards the monster. Harder and harder the rain fell, until the raindrops were streaks of bright blue, like lazers.
"BZZZZZZZ!!!" The wasp intoned in agony, as the rain forced it down to the earth and began to beat down on it relentlessly. However, when Aqua's attack ended, after struggling in a pool of water for a moment, it got right back up and started lunging at the Senshi with its stinger, angrier than ever.
"Oh, great!" Wind said, as she leapt out of the way, and tried to wack at the wasp with her own staff. She managed to hit it, but that made it even angrier, and it dove at Wind furiously. "Yikes!" she yelped.
"Sailor Wind!" Aqua ran towards the giant beast and jumped onto it with all her might, pushing it away from her friend. She landed ontop of it, and it writhed frantically, before buzzing loudly and flying up again, taking Aqua with it.
"Hey!" Moonburst yelled. "Get down here!"
Clap... clap... clap... an eerie sound, suddenly, and it seemed as if everything else had gone silent except for the slow, rhythmic clapping. Clap... clap... clap... the unearthly sound echoed through the Kingdom, and especially in the Senshis' heads.
Sailor Moonburst nearly dropped her staff trying to cover her ears. "What IS that??"
"It's that evil I sensed..." Fire replied, covering her own ears and squinting her eyes. "I'm sure of it."
"What's that noise? What is it??" Wind was looking around, frantic.
"Isn't anyone going to help me get down from here?" Aqua was still draped over the wasp, who was no longer in attack mode - it was simply hovering there.
::What do you mean, "What's that noise"?:: a strange, inhuman voice rumbled through the rapidly darkening Kingdom. ::Don't you know applause when you hear it?::
"What?!" Wind exclaimed. "This is just too weird..."
::Beautiful display of technique, if I do say so myself,:: is all the voice would say in response. Aqua found she had to struggle in order to decipher the low, deep voice.
"Who are you to say?" Aqua looked up from her airborne perch, but all she saw now was blackness.
::This is so impersonal,:: said the voice. ::Come, let us talk in person, face-to-face.::
-SNAP!-
Aqua felt a short falling sensation, like the wasp beneath her had simply vanished. Before she could yelp, she landed bone-jarringly hard on a cobblestone street. She heard the thumps of her friends around her - they had fallen as well. Apparently that "person" had somehow picked them up and deposited them somewhere.
Aqua squinted through the darkness, wishing her eyes would adjust more quickly. She felt someone grab her arm - it was Sailor Wind. "We're still in the Kingdom," Wind whispered, and Aqua nodded.
"Look!" Earth said in a hushed voice, directing everyone's attention in front of them.
An area in the darkness seemed blacker and more solid than the night. Aqua squinted, but she couldn't make out what it was. It was radiating evil energy, though. This did not feel right at all... and the Kingdom was too quiet... what happened to all the monsters that were attacking earlier?
The figure was changing shape. Or that's what Aqua thought at first... as she watched, she realized it was raising its arms, slowly out to its sides, then straight up above its head. There was a strange silence... then a soul-shaking explosion that blasted the Senshi back several feet. Aqua felt herself land on Sailor Earth, who had been behind her. She opened her eyes, and a swirling blue portal had opened behind the being. It sparked with black and purple electricity.
"What's that thing?!" Aqua exclaimed, fearing the worst.
::I said I wanted to talk with you,:: it was the same voice as before - so this was the creature - ::but... I changed my mind. *NEGAVERSE ANATHEMA*!!::
It spoke of an evil spell Aqua had never heard of - and then she felt herself being lifted off her feet by a powerful vaccuum, and pulled towards the portal. Hurricane winds and energy and electricity coursed around her, making everything a whirlwind of chaos and confusion. She opened her mouth, and knew she was screaming, but couldn't hear anything over the roar of the portal. First she was being pulled jerkingly towards the swirling black hole, then she was lifted completely off the earth and flying weightlessly into it.
The last thing Aqua remembered was Sailor Wind's hand slipping out of her grip.
~Continued in Part Two~
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On to Chapter Two -->
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