Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ A Brand New Destiny ❯ School Days ( Chapter 4 )

[ A - All Readers ]

<Title>A Brand New Destiny - Chapter 4: School Days</title>

Disclaimers: Any
characters used in this story that are not involved in either one of the
original series belong to me, so don't take them. Sailor Moon,
unfortunately, does not. Sailor Moon belongs to Naoko Takeuchi, DiC,
Cloverway, and Toei and Kodansha, and probably a whole big bunch of
other companies I don't know the names of. "Successful Mission" is the
theme song from the anime, Saber Marionette J. 

Quick note to just clear up a few facts to a couple of readers: A
Brand New Destiny is **NOT**, in any way, going to
be a Serena/Darien romance fic!! (makes a face at *that*
thought, and taps foot) I want to know, where and how is it that some
people are getting *that* idea from, only after reading
the current four chapters that don't even show who she may or may not
wind up with yet??? At least they didn't the last time I checked. Thank
you. ^_^

E-mail me at: star_moon_strata@yahoo.com

Come visit my webpage at: http://www.geocities.com/angel_skye2001/

<center>"Successful Mission" 

I came to this land to protect you. 
I was born to be with you. 
The moment I awoke... 
...prisms surrounded me.

I'm here to love you now. 
I was born to hold you. 
Lies and truths... 
...are all within ourselves.

The days I abandon my true feelings... 
...won't get to me. 
Tenderness and caring... 
...can be ours once again!

Day in, day out, like a puppet on a string. 
Wandering in the void between zero and infinity 
The strength to sever the tangled wires... 
...is still sleeping inside of you.

----------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Sailor Moon Sailor Stars 
A Brand New Destiny 
Chapter 4: School Days 
Started By: Sailor Star Moon 
----------------------------------------------------------------------- </center>

"...that's another thing about those Earth senshi, Hera." Serena
said as she soaked in the large bathtub in her apartment room.
For the last half hour, Serena sat in the full sized bathtub that
took up nearly the entire bathroom, with her back leaning against smooth
hard surface of the tub as she looked up at the bathroom ceiling, before
letting out a sigh, as her long blonde hair floated in the water.
The tub was filled with bath suds that were almost overflowing
from the top of the tub, but at the moment she didn't care, as she
scrubbed herself with a washcloth.
"The bloody nerve of those Earth senshi, Hera." Serena complained
to her feline companion, a touch of annoyance in her voice as she spoke.
"They are nothing but a bunch of ingrates. I saved their sorry lives
from being cut short, and instead of being grateful, they treat me like
I'm one of those freaks they were fighting against tonight." She said as
she let the hand holding the washcloth drop beneath the water.
"Serena-chan. It couldn't have been as bad as you are making it
out to be." Hera said as she tried to calm down the irritated teenager.
"You said so yourself that most of them weren't that bad as far as you
could tell." She added in placating tones.
"That's because only two of the first four senshi were actually
nice to me. That Pyromaniac, Sailor Mars is the one that really gets me
mad, what with her snobby attitude." She snapped, missing seeing Hera
wince at her tone.
"Everything was going just fine. I would have just left without
getting into a fight, and I think the first group of senshi I met would
have, but *then* all of a sudden these two other senshi,
calling themselves Sailors *Neptune* and
*Uranus*," she said, spitting out the two names as if just
saying them left a bad taste in her mouth, "appeared out of nowhere and
start attacking me when I didn't even do anything against them that
deserve that kind of treatment!"
"Did they give a reason for the attack? Or did they simply attack
you without giving one?" Hera asked, after a moment, a thoughtful look
on her features, as she sat on the edge of the bathtub as she watched
her friend complain about the night's events, her tail twitching in the
air as the other girl fumed.
"Oh, they gave a reason all right," Serena said in a sarcastic
tone, "Despite the fact that I'm a senshi like them, it's only because
they *think* I don't originally come from this part of the
galaxy, that I rank up in the same category as those monsters they
fight. I'd just *love* to see the look on their faces if
they ever found out that I *do* originally come from
Earth. It'd probably take their attitudes down a couple of notches." She
said gloomily, her anger slowly dying down to a simmer, as she stared
down at her reflection in the water. "Acting like they're all better
than anyone who wasn't born on this planet. The way they acted, you'd
think that they personally *owned* Earth themselves,
instead of the people that live here."
"Well it *is* their planet, too. If Earth has Sailor
Senshi protecting in, then they must have a princess that they have to
protect from danger, just like you and the other Starlight's do for
Princess Kakyuu," Hera said as her tail swished from side to side, as
she stopped for a moment to wash her left paw with her tongue. "Besides
it's not like they know that you actually *do* come from
this planet."
"That's besides the point, Hera! If they do, I wonder why doesn't
she have a tighter rein on them. Especially those Outer senshi." Serena
exclaimed with a sharp huff, blowing out a mushroom cloud, as she
started scrubbing her left hand. "They look like they're completely out
of control. If I hadn't released the Flash attack to blind them long
enough to get out of there, somebody would have gotten hurt in the end."

"Still," Hera said thoughtfully, for a moment before continuing
on, "I don't like the way they handled things tonight with you, but all
they were doing was what any Sailor Senshi would do against what they
think as a threat to their planet, Serena." She said, looking
sympathetic a bit, "You know that as well as anyone."
Serena slowly sunk into the warm waters of the bathtub, at Hera's
words, as she glared up at her feline companion. "You're supposed to be
agreeing *with* me Hera. Not agreeing with what those
jerks were doing."
"Why do you keep scrubbing your left hand like that for?" Hera
asked, deciding that it was time to change the subject, or else she had
a feeling that if the conversation continued on the path it was on now,
they'd never hear the end of it. "That's the third time you scrubbed
that particular hand, Serena. It can't get any cleaner than it already
is, you know."
"What are you...?" Serena started, as she sat up straighter in the
tub, surprised by Hera's question as she glanced down at the hand in
question, and realized immediately that she had indeed washed it more
than once already, and blushed, before it was quickly replaced with a
glare, after she realizing that it was also the one that Tuxedo Mask had
grabbed earlier. Dropping the hand towel back into the tub, as she let
out a groan. "I didn't notice."
"Did something *else* happen tonight besides the
Outer Senshi attacking you, Sere?" Hera asked, as she cocked her head to
one side in contemplation, as she watched her friends' reaction to what
she had been doing.
"Nothing else happened, Hera." Serena said quickly. A little too
quickly to Hera's keen ears. "Except�" she added after a few moments,
sounding distracted as she glanced down once more at her hand.
"Except what?" Hera demanded as she walked across the edge of the
tub until she was almost right next to Serena's face, and being extra
careful not to loose her footing on the slippery edge, as her tail
swished from side to side as she waited for Serena's response.
"When I left, I got chased by some weirdo guy calling himself
Tuxedo Mask. He hadn't been at the fight earlier, so I guess he must
have just been arriving and had seen me run off." She said as she looked
up at the ceiling, using her arms to pillow the back of her head. "I
wasn't expecting to be followed so soon, so I was reckless, and ran
right into him. He said that he was those Earth Senshi's protector or
something, and the jerk tried to get me to go back the way we came so
that we could *talk*, as he put it, but I wasn't in the
mood. Then he had the nerve to grab my arm, to try and stop me from
leaving." She stated with a loud growl.
"So, how badly did you hurt this one?" Hera asked in a bored
voice, as she let out a sigh under her breath. _She'll never learn to
control her temper at this rate�_ Hera thought silently to herself
as she waited patiently for Serena's answer.
"Don't worry, Hera. I didn't hurt him, *much*. But
that only happened on reflex, because he surprised me when I ran into
him and he tried to restrain me by grabbing my wrists, to prevent me
from leaving," Serena said as a slight grin spread across her face at
the memory of that event, before turning serious once more. "I only
knocked the wind out of him and sent him flying to the ground. The only
part of him that got hurt was probably his ego."
"Serena�" Hera began in a patronizing tone.
"PLEASE don't get into one of your lectures. You are starting to
sound like your mother, Hera." Serena calmly said in an annoyed tone,
while grinning all the while, cutting into whatever Hera was about to
say. "I've had a long night, and I'm not in the mood right now."
"Hey, take that back!!," Hera protested in an indignant voice, as
she glowered at Serena for a few moments as her chest puffed up at the
reference to her mother, her collar moving up a bit on her neck, "I do
*not* sound the least like my mom." She complained,
stopping to think for a moment, before getting an almost human like
sheepish expression on her features. "Do I?" she asked.
"Yep. The way you just said my name in that tone after I told you
about what happened between Tuxedo Mask and myself, you reminded me of
Rune." Serena said in a teasing tone as her eyes lit up mischievously.
"If I didn't know better I almost thought that you really were Rune just
now."
"Ah jeez," Hera moaned as she laid down on the tub edge and
covered her head with her paws, forgetting about where she was "Just the
one thing I didn't ever want to hear� ACK!" she exclaimed in surprise as
she found that her actions caused her to start to tip over to one side
of the tub. The side covered filled with the bath water. As she
scrambled to try and regain a better grip on the edge was lost, as her
paws lost their grip on the slippery tile...
SPLASH!!!
Hera's unhappy cry rang out throughout the bathroom, as she
splashed helplessly in the bathtub as Serena tried to get a good grip on
the cat, while trying hard to smother her laughter.

<hr>

~Three minutes later~

"This just isn't my day. First I wind up being sent off on the
wrong airplane by accident, now this!" a soaked and bedraggled Hera
whined, as she shook off the access water clinging to her body, her
collar resting on the nearby bathroom counter, was now sitting on the
toilet seat, as Serena, now clad in a bathrobe with her hair wrapped in
a towel, knelt besides the wet cat, and started rubbing a towel through
Hera's fur to help her dry off. "I *hate* it when my fur
gets wet!!"
"Hera, you should have been more careful," Serena said as she
scowled at the cat, as she wrapped a towel around Hera's body, as she
picked Hera up into her arms to walk out of the bathroom. "And don't
complain so much. It's not as bad as your making it out to be."
"I *was* being careful, until you distracted me,
causing me to slip into the bathtub, I still think you did that on
purpose just to see if I fell in," Hera snapped, as she held her head
up, to glare at Serena with an accusing look in her eyes. "Ow! Don't rub
so hard!"
"Oh *sure* put the blame for *your*
mistake on me," Serena said, a note of hurt in her voice. But as Hera
looked up at Serena's face, she could see the smile that had spread over
Serena's face. "You know, if you're going to complain, you can do this
yourself, if you'd only change into your human form, Hera." Serena said
as she let Hera back on the ground as she tossed the wet towel into a
nearby clothes hamper. "It would have taken a lot less time rinsing off
of all those suds, and you would have only had to worry about drying the
hair on top of your head."
"Well, I'm too tired to waste the energy needed to make the
change," Hera began, as she started to shake off the access water from
her still damp fur, only to be interrupted by a loud knocking on the
bathroom door.
"Who is it?!" Serena shouted out as she turned towards the
door.
"Serena, Hera." Sammy's muffled voice called through the thick
bathroom doors, "Seiya and Taiki are back with dinner. So the two of you
better hurry up in there if you want to eat while it's still hot."
"We'll be out in a couple of minutes, Sammy," Serena said
cheerfully as she turned away from the door. "You guys just don't eat
everything before we get there alright?" she called out. After hearing
Sammy's answering laughter, Serena turned away from the door, a small on
her lips, as she turned back to Hera, then stopped as she notices the
serious look Hera was giving her. "What's up, and what's with giving me
*that* look?!"
"Serena are you sure you want to go back home to Kinmoku in three
months?" Hera asked as she watched Serena's back as the other girl
toweled herself off. "Kakyuu-san did say that we could stay on Earth as
long as we wanted if that's what you wanted to do."
"Hera, How many times are you guys going to ask me that before we
go home in three months?" Serena demanded a not of exasperation in her
voice, as she shot the brown striped cat an annoyed look, as she reached
towards the counter for the collar and snaps it back into place around
Hera's neck. "I already told you guys once, the last time you brought
this subject up," Serena said as she quickly rewrapped the towel around
her body, and turned back around.
"I made up my mind a long time ago, that nothing was going to make
me live on Earth permanently." She said sadly as she glanced out a
nearby window into the Tokyo's darkening night sky, taking the moment to
stare up at the moon, before she turned to bend down and pick up Hera
from the tiled floor, gently stroking the cats soft fur.
"But..." Hera started.
"Look, I may have originally been born here, but I haven't
considered Earth to be my home planet in the entire twelve years since I
left it behind. And staying here for the past year and a half hasn't
changed my opinion about moving back to live here permanently."
"Earth's a nice planet for coming for visits or maybe a getaway
for when we're not needed back on Kinmoku," Serena stated as she glanced
at Hera, meeting the cats eyes with sadness, "But it's
*not* a planet that I *want* to live on
permanently," She said firmly.
"But, I still don't think you've really given Earth a chance,
Serena.." Hera said, only to be cut off once more by Serena.
"Hera, I can't. In my heart, Kinmoku and all of its neighboring
planets has become my true home, and I have a life up there, and a
family. And I have too many responsibilities and duties as a Starlight
to just give it all up now." She said cheerfully as she fondly reached
down to stroke Hera on the head, and ruffled her fur, before setting her
back on the floor.
"You and the others have become the family that Sammy and I lost,
and I wouldn't give it up for anything else in the universe. Now come
on. Let's go before the food gets cold."

<hr>

Five minutes later, Serena was dressed and walked into the living
room of the apartment. Once she was out of the bathroom and back in her
bedroom, she had hurriedly thrown on a pair of blue sweatpants, a blue-
green Pokémon 2000 t-shirt with the words "The Power of One" printed on
the front, along with a picture of Lugia and the other Legendary birds
underneath the writing, printed on the front, and was rubbing a towel
through her damp hair.
Hera walked ahead of her, tail swishing from side to side, as she
headed straight towards the small dining table, where the delicious
aromas of food came from.
"Seiya, Taiki, what did you guys get for dinner this time? It
better not be anything with" Hera complained after jumping up onto a
nearby chair, then onto the table to look at the neatly wrapped take out
boxes scattered on the table, not paying attention to what was going
on.
"Don't worry Hera, we got you something special to eat tonight,
that we think you'll love," Taiki said from over on the couch where he
sat with the others as they ate their dinners, while sitting in front of
the TV set. "It's in the container with your initial on it."
"Thanks!" Hera said happily as she searched through the boxes
until she finally found the container in question. Latching her claws
onto the lid of the box, she pulled it open with her claws, to reveal
several slices of steamed fish.
"Hey guys, I'm sorry for taking so long to come out of the
bathroom, but�" Serena began, as she pulled out two clean paper plates,
then dropping Hera's fish onto one plate, only to stop as she glanced
around the room, she immediately realized that something was wrong from
the dark look that Seiya was giving off, along with the same expressions
the others had as they all watched the TV.
"Guys what's going on? What's with the sour looks?" Serena asked
as she turned her attention towards the TV set to find out what had
everyone's attention, as her eyes widened in surprise.
"How long has that been on?!" she demanded as her face started to
turn a lovely shade of red.
"They just started it two minutes ago." Sammy said as he used his
fork to scoop up some food from his plate.
As her eyes her eyes rested on the TV, which was turned on, and
she immediately realized the cause. A news station was broadcasting a
replay of the Sailor Senshi's battle against Raven and the Torok's. The
newscaster on the screen was talking about the battle, as the video
footage showed the Inner Senshi loosing badly against the monsters, as
each of the senshi shot attacks at the monsters only to have their
attacks seemingly leaving no affect on their enemies. 
"...escapades in the park tonight involving the Sailor Senshi
and the bird monsters that they've been fighting recently. But unlike
all of the previous battles against the creatures that the people of
Tokyo have come to know as Toroks, which have been terrorizing the city
for the past two weeks, have seemingly grown stronger than before in
tonight's confrontation with the Sailor Senshi;" the newscaster
stated as he glanced down at the papers in his hands for a moment before
continuing on.
"The Sailor Senshi seemed to be on the loosing end of the
battle this time. Against all odds, it seemed that when it looked like
things were about ready to take a turn for the worst for the senshi,
when the sudden appearance of a brand new sailor senshi calling herself
Sailor Star Dreamer arrived to save the day." The newscaster stated,
as the screen split into two to show a side view screen on the wall of
the news studio, just as the video footage went on to show Sailor Star
Dreamer's appear in the middle of the fight, as she faced off against
Raven and the Torok's.
As they watched, the TV screen showed a live broadcast replay of
Sailor Star Dreamer dodging each of the Torok's attacks as they came at
her for a few moments, before she finally stopped a good distance away
from the battle to release her attack.
"Star Solar Scream!!"
Star Dreamer's voice could be clearly heard as she released her
attack could be heard echoing over the airwaves as the video feedback
showed the blinding light caused by the attack heading for towards the
monsters, moments before the images being shown became distorted, then
completely into static, before being turned off.
A few moments later the newscaster came back on, with a serious,
yet at the same time, slightly annoyed look on his features as he spoke
to the camera.
"As all of you have just witnessed, the reporters on hand
during the battle experienced technical difficulties caused by Sailor
Star Dreamer's attack, as the feedback from the attack caused an
electrical overload, leaving our video camera's permanently offline
during the end of the fight."
A few snickers spread through the room at this bit of news, as
Serena let out a groan, muttering something about "Stupid news reporters
and their need for a story..."
"Nice going sis," Sammy said between laughs. "I just bet those
guys were really happy about that."
"Quiet Sammy," Serena snapped as she turned her attention back to
the TV, as the newscaster continued on. As she watched, her eyes widened
as she realized what might be coming next unless she did something
quick, and immediately started looking around for the remote control.
"...though the good news is, the word from eyewitnesses to the
battle says that Sailor Star Dreamer was able to defeat the Torok's and
their leader with one single blow. But it would seem that once the
battle was over, our local Sailor Senshi, who Star Dreamer had saved,
confronted Star Dreamer, and that it would also seem to have ended on
unfriendly terms from both sides. Eyewitnesses also accounted to the
fact that Star Dreamer was attacked unprovoked by Sailors Neptune and
Uranus who arrived on the scene minutes later..."
CLICK!!
"HEY!!" the boys shouted as the television screen suddenly turned
black, and they all turned as one in search of the culprit.
Only to see Serena standing on the left side of the couch, TV
remote in her left hand and still pointed at the television set, for a
few moments before she slowly lowered her hand and dropped the
controller onto the couch.
"That's enough of that." Serena said with a slight huff, as she
turned back towards the dining table to get her food.
"Serena, what did you do that for?!" Sammy protested as he rested
his eyes on his sister.
"You guys don't need to watch the news to find out what happened
tonight, when you can just ask me." Serena said firmly, as she picked up
her plate of food along with Hera's plate, carrying both to the others
with Hera not that far behind.
Setting down Hera's plate on the floor, Serena then took a seat on
the couch in between Seiya and Yaten, "Besides there's not much to tell,
since that news report already showed everything that happened
tonight."
"Then why not tell us what happened in the confrontation between
these Sailor Neptune and Uranus characters?" Seiya said, a touch of
anger in his voice as he stared at Serena with concerned eyes.
"Exactly what happened tonight against the Earth Sailor Senshi,
Serena?" Taiki asked.
"It's just like that reporter said," Serena said with a shrug of
her shoulders, "The attack was unprovoked. I got into an argument with
the first four Earth senshi that were already there, after I had saved
their lives, and I was getting ready to leave, when Neptune and Uranus
suddenly showed up out of nowhere, and start shooting their attacks at
*me* for no reason," she said as she made a face, before
continuing, "except for the fact that I'm don't belong here on this
planet. It didn't even matter to those two that I was a sailor senshi
like them, or the fact that I saved the lives of their teammates." She
said before turning to her plate of food, and starts eating. "Even that
Sailor Mars wasn't as bad compared to Uranus and Neptune. At least
*she* didn't go straight for the 'attack first and ask
questions later' routine, unlike the other two."
The room remained silent as the others as they went over what
Serena had just told them, for a few minutes.
"This could lead up to some problems," Taiki finally said,
breaking the silence. "From what we saw from that newscast, the Sailor
Senshi of Earth may need all the help they can get against their
enemies. But if we're going to be getting this kind of reception from
the local senshi of this planet..."
"We'll probably have to watch our backs, especially when the Outer
Senshi are around, at least until they decide to start trusting us,"
Seiya cut in, finishing Taiki's unfinished sentence, as he glanced
around at everyone in the room.
"So? What's your point?" Serena asked in an annoyed voice, as she
dug into her food, and waved a hand in a dismissive gesture. "From their
actions tonight, they made it quite plain to me that they neither won't
*or* need our help in this, so let them be. And let them
see for themselves how far they'll get without help."
"Serena, don't be like that." Seiya said as he glanced at the
blond girl next to him, giving her a concerned look.
"You said so yourself before, that not all of them were that bad,
from what you could tell," Yaten added in, as he leaned back in the
cushions of the couch and stretched, before folding his arms behind his
head to use as a pillow. "Besides, I think they could really use all the
help they can get under these circumstances."
"I *said* that only two out the first four I met
tonight were nice and civil to me," Serena said with a huff, before
spooning some more food into her mouth, chewing for a few moments before
swallowing and continues. "The fourth one had been knocked out cold
earlier in the fight, while the one in red, Sailor *Mars*,
was a major pain in the--"
"Now, now, no need for name calling Serena," Taiki said, quickly
cutting in before things got nasty.
"Yeah Serena. I think your taking this a little too personally,"
Sammy said as he narrowed his eyes at his sister, "The four of you
should help the Earth Senshi protect Earth from these guys.
*Please*?" he pleaded, giving Serena a sad puppy dog eyed
look.
"I don't know..." Serena started then gave in when Sammy started
to look more miserable, "All right, all right, Sammy." She said quickly
before taking a pose, with one arm behind her back, and saluted with her
other hand. "I'll help out. But I *swear*, if Neptune and
Uranus take one more shot at me with their attacks, I'm going to..."
"Anyways," Taiki said, deciding that now might be a good time as
any to change the subject, "Seiya and I got us all signed up to start
going to the local schools. And we'll be starting tomorrow morning.
So.." Taiki said cheerfully, as he stood up and stretched, before
walking over to a large pile of packages that had been hooked up to some
chairs, and he neatly dropped each into Serena and the other's laps.
"What are these?" Yaten asked as he held up his package by the
strings that kept it tied up.
"It seems that here in Japan, it is required that all attending
students wear school uniforms, with no exceptions you guys." Taiki said
bluntly, and winced at the outburst that he knew was sure to come.
He didn't have to wait very long. 
"Our what?!!"

<hr>

~Elsewhere in Tokyo~

Darien stood on the balcony outside his apartment, looking up at
the stars as they twinkled in the sky, surrounding the full moon, as he
thought over that night's earlier event, as he pictured Sailor Star
Dreamer's face in his mind. As the memory came to him, he couldn't help
but think back to Star Dreamer's sapphire blue eyes that seemed to be
able to look right into his very soul, with their intenseness.
"I'm Sailor Star Dreamer..." her voice echoed through his
mind repeatedly, as she told him her name.
_Just who *is* Sailor Star Dreamer? And where did
she come from?_ Darien wondered silently to himself as he looked
down towards the streets below. _I wonder exactly who's side is she
really on, anyways? Why do I feel like I should know who she is already,
when I've never seen her before tonight..._
After a few minutes, he glanced down at his hand, and rubbed it
for a full minute as he thought back to the strange sensation he had
felt when he had touched hands with Star Dreamer. _And what was with
that shock I felt when we touched hands?_ 
"Hey Darien, aren't you coming to bed yet?" a familiar, yet sleepy
voice called out from inside Darien's bedroom. "Man, it's already
getting late, and we all have to be up bright and early tomorrow if we
want to get to work on time, Dare."
"Yeah Darien," another voice chimed in, in a bored voice, "Plus
the fact that we have to meet up with the girls at Raye's shrine after
they get out from school tomorrow."
Turning his head slightly to look in the direction that the voice
was coming from, Darien saw that it was it was all four of his current
roommates gathered in the archway of his bedroom door, frowning at him
with displeased expressions on their faces.
Malachite, standing in the doorway of his bedroom, wearing nothing
but a pair of pajama pants, as his long white hair flowed loosely down
his back as he let out a loud yawn. Next to him stood Zoisite, Nephrite
and Jadeite. 
"Malachite, how many times do I have to tell you and the other
guys not to call me that? I'm not a prince anymore." Darien demanded as
he scowled at Malachite, before turning back around to stare back at the
night sky. "And, besides I'm not tired yet. After what happened tonight,
I've been doing a lot of thinking."
"You must realize by now, that no matter *who* you
may be now, you'll always be the prince that we all swore to protect
centuries ago in our eyes, Darien," Malachite said with a slow chuckle,
as he watched the dark haired younger man in silence, as he turned back
to look at the others as they stood off in different corners of the
room, "right guys?"
"I haven't seen you this way in a long while, Darien, not since
your back in the Silver Millennium anyway. So I'm guessing that whatever
it is that your thinking about," Nephrite asked as he stepped fully into
the room, and moved to sit down on the bed, as he stared at Darien's
back, "Been thinking about that new Senshi? What was her name again?
Sailor Star Streamer?"
"It was 'Star Dreamer'!" Darien snapped, turning back to face
Malachite. Suddenly feeling a need to stick up for the unknown senshi,
then immediately looked apologetic as he gave Malachite a sheepish grin,
"Sorry about that, Malachite. I don't know what it is, but I feel that
there was something familiar about her. Like I should know her from
somewhere, but that's impossible."
"If I didn't know better, I'd think that this new Senshi has
caught our princes' attention in more ways than he's letting on."
Zoisite said as he walked up towards Darien to get a better look at the
other mans face, "Don't tell me that you've suddenly developed a certain
*thing* for this new senshi?"
"Don't be crazy, Zoisite, of course not. I don't even know who she
is. Let alone the fact we don't even know whose side she really is on."
Darien exclaimed as he frowned at the blond man before him, before
reaching out to gently push him out of the way. "Besides she's not who I
was thinking about."
"Now you're starting to sound like Alex and Michelle, with their
antisocial attitudes towards outsiders, to the group, Darien." Zoisite
scolded as he frowned at the young prince.
"Those two, still don't trust the four of *us* even
after everything we've all gone through together, because of our past
association with the Negaverse." Malachite said disapprovingly.
"Yeah, and the Outers only tolerate us most of the time is because
we're *your* guardians and protectors, Darien, plus the
fact that we're the boyfriends of the Inner Senshi," Nephlite said,
shaking his head ruefully at the memory, "though I think Michelle is
beginning to warm up to us. It's Alex that is the problem."
"Speaking of which, I just got off the phone with Michelle,"
Nephlite said, as a slight smirk spread across his features, as he
clicked off his cell phone. "She says that Alex has been having a fit
about that broadcast on TV over what happened at the park."
"I just bet she is, after the way they put her and Michelle down
on live TV," Zoisite said with a smirk. "I think that they went too far
this time though. Attacking Star Dreamer as if she was one of our
enemies, even though her Sailor Senshi status should have been more than
enough proof to those two that she must have been one of the good
guys,"
"Especially after she saved the Inner Senshi tonight." Jedite said
as he crossed his arms across his chest, and leaned against one of the
walls, "If it wasn't for Star Dreamer, we probably would have four less
sailor senshi to count to help fight this new enemy."
"Yeah, I agree. I say alien or not, if this Sailor Star Dreamer is
as powerful as everyone is making her out to be, then we're really going
to need all the help we can get in the fight ahead." Malachite said as
he crossed his arms across his chest, as he glanced at the other men in
the room.
"Not to get off the subject or anything, Darien, but just who
*were* you thinking about?" Zoisite asked as he sidled in
next to the younger man, taking a seat on the bed, "You never have
*that* look on your face even when your around other
girls."
Darien sighed as he finally gave in, deciding that he wasn't going
to be left alone until he finally did tell them something.
"Alright already! I'll tell you." Darien exclaimed as he held up
his hands to ward them off, grinning all the while, "Before I met up
with you guys at the Arcade, I literally ran into this blond girl on the
street," he said as a thoughtful look appeared on his features, "She
said that she was new in town, and I was getting ready to show her
around town when I heard about the attack in the park on TV, So I left
her behind with Andrew to go get you guys so we could get to the
park."
"Does this mystery girl have a name?" Nephlite asked, his interest
now piqued by this news. 
"She said her name was Serena Tsukino." Darien said, as he got a
thoughtful look on his face, "You guys know something? I only met her
today, but I can't help but think that there was something familiar
about her, that I can't place. Like I should have known her already," he
said as he glanced around at the others, noticed that they were all
looking at him with the same expressions on all of them, "What?"
"Tsukino..." Malachite said thoughtfully, not really paying
attention to Darien's question, "There's something familiar about that
last name..."
The other three generals nodded in agreement.
"Don't worry about it you guys, it's probably nothing," Darien
said with a chuckle as he crossed his arms across his chest as he walked
over to his bed and sat down, pushing backwards until his back rested
against the headboard of the bed, pulling his legs up to rest his chin
on top of them as he brooded.
After a few moments of silence, a thought came to him, "Hey, have
any of you heard back from Patrick lately? It's been awhile since I
heard anything from him, since he left months ago."
"Oh yeah I completely forgot!" Zoisite exclaimed, snapping his
fingers, "I received an e-mail from him earlier today while the rest of
you were out," Zoisite said as he looked around the room at the others,
taking note of the disapproving looks he was receiving, especially from
Malachite, and shrugged it off, as he pulled out a piece of paper from
his back pocket. "What? With all the excitement that happened earlier,
it completely slipped my mind."
"What did the e-mail say, Zoisite?" Darien asked impatiently as he
let out an exasperated sigh, turning his attention back to Zoisite.
"What's he been up to lately?"
"Well the letter said that he was now attending some seminar in
Australia, and probably won't be back in Tokyo until maybe the end of
the week." Zoisite said, as he glanced down at the e-mail for a moment,
before looking back up at the others, "And, that he needs to speak to
all of us about something important."
"Hmph, I wonder what's bringing him back to Japan after all this
time." Malachite said, his features hardening in angry lines spreading
across his face. "He shouldn't have left the way he did, especially now
that we all need him."
"Oh, come on Malachite," Jedite said as he frowned at the white
haired man, before shaking his head. "Don't tell me that you still are
angry that Patrick left are you? It's not like it's his fault that our
problems started *after* he was gone."
"Don't give me that, Jedite!" Malachite snapped angrily, as he
slumped down into a nearby chair, with a dark look on his features, "He
shouldn't have left at all to begin with. Especially since we still
haven't found the Moon Princess yet."
"Well he's coming back now, so he can help us out when he gets
here." Darien stated firmly, as he looked over at the four Generals,
just before a loud yawn passed his lips, "Look it's getting late, we can
discuss this another time. So let's go to sleep, all right?"
"Fine," Malachite said as he headed for the bedroom door, followed
by the other generals. "Night Dare."

<hr>

Across town, Amy was just arriving home from the battle, trudging
down the hall of her apartment building to her apartment, as she felt
the aches and pains from that night's battle cursing through her
body.
_I'm so tired, and my entire body feels so stiff. I can't
believe how badly things went tonight. It's a good thing I finished my
homework early today,_ Amy complained silently to herself as she
finally came upon her apartment door.
Leaning against the wall next to the door, Amy reached into her
coat pockets for her keys for a few moments before finally fishing them
out, finds the right key and sticks it into the lock, _All I want to
do right now is get something to eat then get some sleep in my nice soft
bed._
"I'm home!" Amy called as she stepped into the apartment that she
shared with her mother. "Mom are you home?" she asked wearily as she
looked around, flicking on the hallway lights, she made her way to the
hallway closet to put away her coat. "Luna?"
"She's not back from the hospital yet, Amy. Remember, she told you
this morning that she might be working late again on the graveyard shift
in the O.R.," A female voice called out from somewhere, as the sound of
padded feet came across the carpeted floor, as a small furry body rubbed
against Amy's ankles for a moment. "Welcome home. How did tonight's
battle against the Torok's go?"
"Hi Luna. Oh yeah. I had a lot on my mind tonight, that I
completely forgot that she told me," Amy said in a cheerful voice as she
reached down to pick up the black cat, giving her a small hug before
setting her back on the floor. "Things didn't go very well tonight. This
new batch of Torok's were much stronger than they were in previous
battles," as she walked into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator
door and peered inside. After a moment, she reached inside and pulled
out a small plastic wrapped bowl.
"Why? What happened tonight?" Luna demanded as she sat down to
watch Amy, quickly noting how Amy seemed to be taking extra care not to
move too quickly as she moved around the room. "And are you
alright??"
"The Inners were getting our butts trounced on by the Torok's,
that's what was happening, Luna. And we all have the bruises to prove it
too," Amy said moodily, as she started peeling off the plastic that
covered the bowl, as she walked over to the microwave oven, and dropped
the bowl inside, as she set the timer, before plopping down onto a
nearby chair. "Tonight's fight was worse than any other we've gone up
against."
"But you're alright now, so I guess that the Outer senshi and the
Generals must have arrived in time to give you girls a hand." Luna
stated matter of factly as she leaped up onto the adjoining chair next
to Amy.
"Not exactly," Amy said as she leaned her head back against the
chair tiredly, "they didn't arrive until after the fight was over. We
were saved by a brand new Sailor Senshi, calling herself Sailor Star
Dreamer..."
"What do you mean a new Sailor Senshi!" Luna exclaimed cutting
into what Amy was about to say, her ears perking up at this bit of news
as she looked at Amy with curious eyes, and then shook her head in
denial.
"She's not from this galaxy, that's as much as we can be ascertain
of, Luna," Amy said in an insistent voice, as she glanced over at the
lunarian cat, with a thoughtful look. "There reason to deny, that there
could be other planets out there, that no one knows about yet. And if
so, there may also be Sailor Senshi protecting those planets also."
"There aren't any other planetary Senshi, Amy. Artemis and I would
have known if there were others. Are you certain she wasn't just some
human pretending to be a Sailor Senshi?" Luna insisted as she shook her
head firmly.
"No. Sailor Star Dreamer's show of powers tonight proves that
theory wrong. She managed to finish off the Torok's in one single
attack," Amy said as she eyed the lunar cat beside her warily, watching
the myriad of expressions cross Luna's feline features.
"Now that I think of it, it couldn't be as impossible as that,"
Luna finally said after a few moments of silence, as she started to pace
across the linoleum floor. "From what I can remember, back in the Silver
Millennium, Queen Serenity didn't have much contact with any of the
other planets that were located outside of this solar system, except for
Planet Mau. So the possibility of there being more interplanetary senshi
out there couldn't be impossible..."
"We don't think she came from this part of the galaxy, Luna.
Another thing was that her fuku wasn't designed the same as ours, and it
was all black." Amy said as she glanced down at Luna for a moment, "And
she said that she was part of group called Starlight's." she added just
as the bell on the microwave went off, and she stood back up to go get
her meal. "But before we could get anymore information from her, Neptune
and Uranus arrived that very moment, and ruined everything by attacking
her."
"I take it that things didn't go well after that?" Luna asked in a
wry tone, as her ears flattened against her head, _Not again!_
Luna thought vehemently to herself as she already pictured the outcome
of the fight. At the moment even though she too had her own suspicions
over the appearance of this new Sailor Senshi, she still wasn't pleased
at the actions the two older girls must have taken. _Those two are
never going to learn. They probably wouldn't be this way if the princess
was here with us now to keep them in line..._
"Correct, Luna. Though it didn't end as badly as you might think,"
Amy said as she shook her head in exasperation, as she sighed, "Star
Dreamer used some sort of a flash attack that temporarily blinded all of
us, and made her escape before any of us could fully recover. The others
have scheduled a Senshi meeting tomorrow after school so we can discuss
what happened tonight." She said as she headed towards her room. "Now if
you will excuse me, I want to eat, then go straight to bed, since I'm
going to have a long day tomorrow."
"Things wouldn't be this bad if we could only find the Moon
Princess," Luna said wistfully, as she let out a sigh, as she glanced
out a nearby window at the full moon, as Amy left the kitchen.
_Queen Serenity, it's been two years since all of the sailor
senshi have been awakened, and still we have not found the
princess,_ Luna thought silently to herself, to the long dead queen
of the moon.
_I wish that there was something that there was some kind of
sign that will lead us to her._ She said with a sigh, as she looked
back at Amy's semi closed bedroom door, where she could see the light
shining through. "And, I just wish that *you* were still
here to lead us." She added, as she turned to she followed Amy to her
bedroom.

<hr>

~Fey Kingdom, Avalon~

After Empress Titania had called an end to the assembly, Raven
walked down the halls of the palace away from the throne room as he made
his way back to his chambers, deep in thought over that night's
events.
_I can't believe how badly things went tonight. _ He
thought angrily as the memories of what happened hit him. Even after the
healing session from Star, his skin was still sensitive to the slightest
movement in some areas. 
_Even those blasted Outer Senshi never came *that* close
to actually hurting me, unlike that Sailor Star Dreamer did._ He
said as a grimace appeared on his features at the memory of the pain he
had felt, before disappearing completely. _I have to find a way to
finish her off, and regain favor with Empress Titania._ He thought
with finality as he felt a chill go through his body at the thought of
the penalty he'd be given if he failed again the next time Titania sent
him out on a mission. _Star Dreamer most definitely has to
go._
"Dinari for your thoughts, Raven?" Star asked as she came up from
behind Raven, and wrapped her arms around Raven's waist, hugging him to
her own body.
Raven sighed exasperatedly as he turned around in Star's embrace
to hold her closer to his own body; a low growl of annoyance escaped his
lips, as his eyes narrowed in anger.
"I'm angry about what happened tonight, Star. Things were going
according to plans, and then that Sailor Star Dreamer brat had to come
and ruin everything, by saving those wretched Inner Senshi at the last
minute." He stated as he pulled out of Star's grip, to move over towards
a nearby chair to sit down. _If I can only find out where she came
from and who she really is, then I will be able to get rid of her
permanently._ He thought moodily to himself. 
"It looks like you'll have to wait awhile until we see how Puck
and Frostbite do on their mission," Star said, as she nodded her head in
agreement to Raven's words, though looking a bit skeptical, Star walked
over to Raven and took a seat in the chair next to his, "but look on the
bright side. They can't do any worse than you did against this new
sailor senshi."
"Gee thanks for the vote of confidence," Raven said sarcastically
under his breath as he got a hooded look on his features, as he glared
over at Star. 
"Wait, that's not what I meant," Star exclaimed quickly, realizing
her mistake, Star tried to fix things. "Actually, what I meant was, that
with the two of them working together in going after the senshi as a
team, maybe the odds would be better..."
"Don't bother, Star, I know exactly what you meant, but I'm not
mad much." Raven cut in as he glanced up and met Star's gaze with a
grin. "I'm just kidding. Besides now that I have some free time coming
to me for awhile, I can think of a few more interesting things I could
do with it," He said as he reached over and pulled Star out of her chair
and into his lap, wrapping his arms around her waist to hold her in
place, and started to pull her in for a kiss.
Before their lips could meet, Star immediately put a stop to it,
by bringing her hand up in between them, and resting them against his
chest as she gave Raven a gentle push away. But because the small action
was unexpected, Raven barely managed to catch himself in time from
falling out of the chair.
"What was that for?!" Raven demanded, as his features turned
stormy at the rejection. 
"Sorry Raven, but not tonight." She said simply as she stood up
and straightened her clothes. "After you and the others left the throne
room, Titania informed me and a few others, that she wants us to attend
to the Hex Sisters, and help them prepare for what's coming. Orders are
orders. So I'll be seeing you later on tonight." She said as she placed
a slight kiss on Raven's lips before pulling away from him.
Raven's only response was a really long string of curses as he
stood up, then stopped as a shooting pain hit him from his left side,
causing him to almost stagger from the pain, as his right hand gripped
his injured side. 
"Breath Raven," Star said quietly as she patted him on the back as
a way to try and help him out. "It's not as bad as your trying to make
it out to be."
"The Hex Sisters?! You've got to be kidding me!" Raven finally
gasped out, as he gritted his teeth in pain, as he glanced up at Star
for a moment, a dark scowl appearing on his features, "They'll keep you
away all night, with their work."
"I know, but orders are orders, Raven. You know that," Star said
with a slight shrug of her shoulders, "Besides," Star added slyly, as
she secretly smiled at Raven's obvious pain, as she reached out and
gripped his arm, and led him to his bed, "You still have a lot of
healing to do before I get back." She said as she pushed him back down
onto the bed. "Now try and get some sleep."
"I just knew you were still mad at me after what I did this
morning," Raven muttered under his breath as he let his body slide down
onto the mattress, "or else you would have completely healed me this
time, Star." He said as his eyes slowly started to drift close.
"I'm not mad, Raven. I did heal you enough so that you didn't
collapse in front of Empress Titania, didn't I?" She asked as she eyed
Raven, a moment as she pulled the blankets up on top of him. "I'll see
you later tonight or tomorrow, Raven." She said as she walked towards
the door, stopping only for a moment to wave her hand in front of a
nearby glowing circular wall panel, and the lights in the room dimmed,
bathing the room in darkness for the night, before continuing on her way
out the door.

<hr>

At that same moment Puck, who had been listening in on Raven and
Star's conversation, sat in his chambers staring through a scrying
mirror that gave him a full view of Raven's chambers, as he watched the
couple as they to settle down for the night, a mischievous smile on his
features as he the lights in the room were turned off.
"They're at it again, aren't they?" Frostbite's voice said as she
appeared next to Puck in a swirl of mist and cold, and peered past Puck
into the now darkened room being shown in the mirror. "I can't see why
you seem to enjoy spying on them so much, Puck."
"Not that it's any of your business, but what better way to see
what my brother could be planning next than to spy on him in secret,
Frostbite? I still can't believe that my dear brother lost a battle to a
one mere human in black leather." Puck said canceled out the image,
before he turned to face the ice woman. "What can I do for you tonight?"
he said as he crossed his arms over his bare chest.
"I only came to discuss with you our plans for tomorrow. Titania
expects us to give her results immediately now that she gave us Raven's
job." Frostbite said as she took a seat in a nearby chair turning to
face Puck as he eyed her with a wary look. Smiling, Frostbite pulled her
legs up into the chair, to rest her chin on the top, as she returned his
stare with a confident one.
"I for one think I could handle this job by myself with out your
interference, Frostbite." Puck snapped as he glared at Frostbite. "You
would only mess up everything if you come along, like always."
"What you really mean is that with me along you won't be able to
fool around like you usually do." She said as a light chuckle escaped
her lips, "You didn't earn your reputation as being the 'Prankster' by
being idle all the time. And *that* is what has always
gotten you into a lot of trouble half the time in the past," Frostbite
said with a snort as she blew out a breath of cold air at Puck. "Why
else do you think her highness assigned me to partner up with you?"
"I would have thought that she partnered us up, in order for
*me* to keep *you* out of trouble," Puck
said in a sarcastic, cocky tone, as he let out a loud 'hmph' and turned
his head away, completely ignoring her comment, for the moment. "You
have an even worse reputation than me, oh mighty Ice Princess. Now get
on with what you wanted to discuss with me or else, you can get out
now."
"Whatever. But I want you to look at me when I'm talking to you,
Puck," Frostbite said indifferently, waited a few moments for him to
turn his head back around, before she reached out one hand towards
Puck's face, gripping his chin in her hand, and forces him to turn his
head back around to look at her.
"What do you have in mind?" Puck asked as he folded his hands onto
his lap, staring intently at the ice maiden, "whatever it is, it better
be worth my time, Frostbite."
"Oh, I assure you, my dear Puck," Frostbite said as a somewhat
malicious grin appeared on her features, "I believe that my plan for
tomorrow will please everyone, and finally bring an end to those moronic
sailor senshi once and for all. And if that Sailor Star Dreamer
interferes again, the way she did tonight with Raven," a slow frown
appeared at the thought, "she won't live to see another day."

<hr>

"I see that your new school uniform fits perfectly, Sere," Taiki
said teasingly as he gazed at the blue green girls school uniform
approvingly, as the blond girl stepped back into the front room after
awhile.
"Ewww... You guys have *got* to tell me that you've
got to be KIDDING ME!!!" Serena cried out in disdain, as she stepped out
of her bedroom, after trying on her new school uniform, though not
without a lot of argument, with the others.
Seiya and Taiki were the only ones still in the main room of the
apartment, while Yaten and Sammy had already gone off to their own
bedrooms to get some sleep. Hera had followed Serena into her bedroom to
watch Serena get into her school uniform to give her own comments on the
uniform, only to finally give into her tiredness, and fell asleep
herself on one of the pillows in front of the headboard of the bed.
"Nobody wears uniforms to a public school." Serena complained as
she looked down in disdain at her outfit. "And it's not my style or
color either..." she said as she reached down to tug on the hem of her
skirt.
"Believe me Serena, when I say that that's *exactly*
what *I* said when they showed us the uniforms we have to
wear," Seiya said sympathetically, in between chuckles as he saw the
look on Serena's face.
"But all the schools in Japan, have a strict school uniform
rule." Taiki added in as he only shook his head in sympathy. "You're
just lucky that we were allowed to get them."
Serena let out an unladylike humph as she walked over to the couch
and let her body hit the cushions with a plop as she crossed her arms
across her chess. "I would sooner stay out of school than wear
*this* stupid outfit to it," She snapped angrily.
"Look at the bright side Serena," Seiya said as he walked over to
Serena and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, "your school uniform
doesn't look *that* bad." He said with a slight grin.
"That's easy for you to say, Seiya." Serena said in a pertinent
tone, as she crossed her arms over her chest, moving closer into the
embrace, as she eyed Seiya's school uniform, "At least you guys get to
still wear pants in your school uniforms."
"Can't be helped, Serena." Taiki said, shaking his head. "Rules
are rules. I think that they would actually send a student back home to
change if they came to school without their uniforms on." He said moved
towards Serena, and bent over her to lightly kiss her forehead, before
turning back around to walk away, and heads towards the adjoining doors,
"I'm going to go get some sleep, since we're going to need to wake up
early in the morning in order to get to school on time. The two of you
should do the same." He called over his shoulder, as he slipped through
the door, shutting it behind him, leaving Serena and Seiya to
themselves.
"Shoot. This bites big time," Serena muttered, momentarily giving
up on the argument, as she let out a loud yawn, involuntarily covering
her mouth with her left hand, as she closed her eyes for a moment, and
leaned against the cushions, and leaned in further into Seiya's embrace,
wincing a bit in pain from some of her remaining unhealed wounds.
"Tired?" Seiya asked quietly, his own voice sounding tired, as he
bent over to look directly into Serena's face, before removing his arms
from around her shoulders and walks around the couch to sit down next to
her.
"Yeah. Who wouldn't be, after experiencing the kind of day I've
had?" Serena replied sleepily as another yawn passed her lips, as she
gazed over at Seiya with half closed eyes, as a small smile spread over
her lips. "First that long plane trip out here to Tokyo, and now
tonight's battle park." She whined as she laid down on the couch with
her head resting on Seiya's lap, as she closed her eyes, and rested her
left hand over them. "I'm dead tired now."
"Yeah I know," Seiya replied as he looked away from her for a
moment, as he became thoughtful, "Not even the couple of hours of sleep
I took earlier was enough to get rid of the jetlag I'm still feeling,"
he said as he glanced back down at Serena.
"And now we have to go to school in the morning, to boot. I was
really looking forward for some time off in between concerts." Serena
said with a low groan, as she rested her hand on her forehead, shielding
her eyes from the overhead lights, before slowly meeting Seiya's gaze.
"Shoot I don't think I'm going to survive what's likely to happen at
school."
"Come on, Serena. Schools not that bad." Seiya chided softly as he
reached out to rest his, "You'll probably be making a lot of friends at
the high school we're going to be attending tomorrow."
"Yeah right, friends." Serena said with a snort, as she slowly sat
up, to stretch for a moment as looked at him from over her shoulder,
giving Seiya a slight grin, "It'll probably end up being the same thing
as always. If any of the girls at that school talk to me at all, it'll
probably be to ask me what you three are like, or if you have any
girlfriends or something like that." She said with a slight, false
sounding indignant huff.
"You should hear some of the things the boys we meet up with, ask
us about *you*. Your just as popular with the male
population of Earth as we are with the female population." Seiya said
with a slight smirk, his features hardening at some the memories. "The
others and I had to put more than one boy in their place when their
questions got out of line."
"I didn't ask you to do any of that, but thanks anyways Seiya."
Serena said, as she playfully swatted Seiya in the shoulder, "None of
the girls I meet ever really get to know *me*. All they
see is the lead vocalist of the hottest music group the world has seen,
and the sister to three of the hunkiest guys to ever be born."
"Hunky, huh?" Seiya asked, arching an eyebrow as Serena's started
to blush, but decided to bring it back up later on. "Don't remind me,"
Seiya said with a half groan as he dramatically draped his hand over his
eyes, as a fake pained look crossed his features, "The others and I have
girl fans fawning over us everywhere we go, wanting to either get our
autographs, personal souvenirs..."
"And I just bet that you've been counting off the days before we
finally go back home, and you can become a full time girl again," Serena
said teasingly, as she gazed up at Seiya with curious eyes, before a
mischievous glint appeared in her eyes. "Though, I don't think anyone
would be able to tell the difference, since you've always been too much
of a tomboy back home, Sei-*chan*."
"And just *who* are *you* calling a
tomboy?" Seiya said, raising his hand away from his eyes a bit, as he
looked at Serena, knowing exactly what game she was trying to play. "You
were *way* worse than me back home."
"True," Serena acknowledged with a small nod, before grinning once
more, "But, at least *my* name wasn't secretly cursed out
under the breaths of every nanny, beautician, and lady's maid who were
unfortunate enough to be assigned to watching over you, and tending to
your needs," Serena countered back with a slight grin.
"Hmph, very funny. I wasn't that bad and you know it, Sere." Seiya
said in false indignation, as a slight pout appeared on his lips.
"Just you keep believing that, Seiya." Serena said, as she
stretched out on the couch, putting her feet up onto the armrest, as she
made her head more comfortable on Seiya's lap, as another yawn past her
lips, and half closed her eyes.
"But your wrong about one thing, Serena," Seiya said softly as he
gazed down at Serena for a moment.
"And what's that?" Serena asked as she opened her eyes to look up,
and met his dark blue eyes.
"I'm not exactly counting off the days until I can become a full
time girl again," Seiya admitted, "I've discovered that there are
special advantages to being a guy most of the time. It
*has* to be the *tomboy* side of me."
"Advantages like what?" Serena asked as she sat up and turned her
attention fully towards him.
"I don't think I should tell you now," Seiya said, smiling gently,
Seiya bent his body forward until his forehead was touching hers as he
stared into her eyes, as he reached up with one hand to lightly touch
her cheek, "Maybe I'll tell you later, if your good." 
"Seiya..." Serena said as she looked deeper into his eyes for a
moment.
Just then, just as their lips were about to touch, their ears
suddenly picked up the barely recognizable sound of somebody loudly
clearing their throat to get their attention interrupted them. 
Jumping apart, both teens stood up, as their faces flaming red as
they realized exactly how close they had been, and what they had almost
done.
"Serena? Seiya?" asked a familiar voice from behind them. "What
are you guys doing?"
As one, they turned to look in the direction that the sound had
come from, in search of the culprits, and see Sammy dressed in his
pajamas, with Hera resting in his arms, as they both stared at Serena
and Seiya with wide eyes.
"Nothing. We were just about ready to go to bed," Serena said as
she glanced at Seiya and see's that he was slowly nodding his head in
agreement to what she'd just said, before turning back to the others
"What are you guys still doing up?" Serena demanded.
"Geez, no need to bite my head off, Serena," Sammy snapped back,
"I wanted to come get a glass of water to drink, and I met up with Hera
on my way out of your room," Sammy said, yawning a bit as he put Hera
back down onto the floor, "I'm going to get my and go back to bed. You
guys can continue making out if you want."
"WE'RE NOT MAKING OUT!!!" both teens roared simultaneously
after Sammy's retreating figure, before their blushes deepened as they
glanced at each other uncertainly for a moment before turning away.
"Didn't seem that way to me when we came in," Hera piped in from
her spot on the floor as she looked up at Serena and Seiya.
Serena only glared at Hera for a few moments, until the star cat
finally looked away, then she let out a sigh. "Alright Hera, spill it.
What were *you* awake? I thought you had fallen asleep
earlier."
"I woke up obviously," Hera said in a terse tone, as she frowned
up at Serena and Seiya, moving her gaze between both teens, "I woke up
only to find you not in our room, so I came out to look for you, the two
of you *do* realize how late it's getting?"
"Now that you found me, let's go back to bed," Serena said after
glancing at a nearby wall clock, and realizes that it indeed was getting
late. "Come on," Bending down, to pick up Hera, cradling the tiger
striped cat in her arms. Standing back up, she met Seiya's gaze, as the
boy watched her. "Goodnight Seiya. I'll see you guys first thing in the
morning, okay?" Serena asked stopping outside her bedroom door, as she
took a moment to glance back.
"Yeah, well goodnight you two," Seiya said as he heads towards the
connecting doors, "and pleasant dreams."

<hr>

"Not a word Hera, not one word," Serena exclaimed a few minutes
later as she walked back into her bedroom, stripping off her school
uniform and draping it over a nearby chair, and quickly put on her a
large t-shirt that went almost all the way down to her knees.
"What's going on between you and Seiya lately, Serena?" Hera
demanded, completely ignoring, as she jumped onto the bed to watch
Serena getting undressed.
"Nothing's going on," Serena protested as she gave Hera a dark
look, her face still slightly flushed in embarrassment, as she plopped
down on her soft bed, face first onto her pillow.
"Don't give me that," Hera snapped walked up the head of the bed
until she stood next to Serena's head, as she batted Serena on the back
of her head with a paw to get her attention, as a tail swished through
the air agitatedly, "The two of you have been acting strangely over the
last three months."
"We haven't been acting any different than usual," Serena
protested halfheartedly as she slowly turned her head around on her
pillow to look at Hera for a moment, with a tired look.
"You like Seiya, don't you?" Hera asked quietly as she looked
Serena in the eyes, not missing the flinch she saw in her eyes.
"Of course I like him." Serena said defensively, as she sat up on
the bed, using her elbows to prop herself up as she scowled at the tiger
striped brown cat, "he's my best friend and..."
"Serena, you *must* know exactly what I meant,"
Hera said, cutting into Serena's tirade. "I've been watching the both of
you for awhile ever since I first noticed it."
Remaining silent for a few minutes, Serena didn't answer right
away, before letting out a loud sigh again, "I don't know how to answer
that Hera. I've known Seiya since we were small kids, and he-
*she's* my best friend." She said, then sighed as she got
a far away look on her face.
"I'm starting to think that friendship of yours has started to
change in the last few months," Hera insisted as she laid down next to
Serena's head, as her violet eyes scanned the blond's face.
"Nothings changing," Serena insisted as she glared in Hera's
direction, before twisting around on the bed, so that she was now facing
the other way.
"But... OOF!!" Hera started only to be cut off as a large pillow
came flying at her, almost knocking her off the bed, if she hadn't
managed to grab onto the sheets with her claws to stop her fall. It took
her a moment to crawl out from under the pillow to glare at Serena.
"Serena!"
"Hera, just drop it will you?" Serena exclaimed as she sat up and
returned the glare, "I'm tired, and I don't want to talk about it right
now, ok?"
"If you don't want to talk about it now, then fine." Hera said as
she exclaimed irritably, "but if you happen to want to talk about it
sometime," as she turned away from Serena and made her way to the foot
of the bed, and laid down on the left side of Serena's legs, and
instantly fell asleep a few seconds later.
_I wish that I could tell you, Hera,_ Serena thought to
herself, as she stared at Hera's sleeping form, _I don't know what I
feel for Seiya anymore myself these days._
_Do I care for him more than just a friend?_ as she turned
around on the bed to rest her head on her folded hands, as she stared at
the ceiling for a few moments in silence, before turning over and
switching off the lights, and went to sleep.

<hr>

~Morning, Juban High School~

It was a quiet morning at Juban High, as the students piled into
their classrooms to start the day.
In one particular classroom, no one paid attention as four
battered girls practically limped into the room, as the four made their
way to their seats.
Amy, Mina, Lita and Raye all sat in the middle rows of the
classroom, having been lucky enough to get seats together before
everything was taken up at the beginning of the school term.
"Hey, Mina, how are you doing today?" Lita asked, in a low whisper
as she sank into her seat, turning her head to glance at the blond girl
next to her. "You took the worst of it last night."
"I'm fine," Mina said sleepily as she spread her arms out across
the desk, and rested her head on them, taking a moment to give Lita a
'V' sign with her left hand, before letting it fall back to the desktop,
"Every part of my body still hurts, and I could barely sleep last night
because of it, but it's not something I can't handle." She said before
giving her friends a sheepish grin. "Besides, Malachite gave a jar of
his special healing salve."
"That's good to hear, Mina. I was worried about you last night,
since you refused to go to the hospital," Amy scolded as she turned away
to pull out a schoolbook. "Though, you really should have stayed home
today to help yourself heal." 
"I would have preferred to stay home today, but my mom wouldn't
hear of it, since I wasn't even sick, and I couldn't tell her the
*real* reason why I didn't want to go, you know." Mina
said as she gave her friend a rueful look, before shaking her head and
laid it back down on the desk. "She would have asked me a lot of
impossible questions that I couldn't answer."
The four friends were still worn out and slightly bruised from the
battle from the night before, and weren't really in the mood to listen
to another long day of classes.
Just then, the teacher entered the room, a few seconds before the
final bell rang, and quickly made her way to her desk. Once seated, she
pulled open the top drawer and pulled out the role call sheet, stopping
momentarily to glance up to scan the classroom, before smiling.
"Good morning everyone. I hope that all of you have had a restful
night, and are prepared to work hard today on your studies." Ms. Haruna
said cheerfully as she looked around.
"Yes Ms. Haruna," everyone said.
"That's good to hear," Ms. Haruna said as she quickly pulled out a
pen, and turned her attention towards the role book, "If anyone is
missing today, can someone inform me."
"Amy Mizuno..."
"Here."
"Molly Baker..."
"Here."
"Melvin Danvers..."
"Present."
"Travis..."
Just then, as Ms. Haruna was taking the roll, a loud knock came at
the classroom door, interrupting the class. Putting down the roll book
and standing up, she walked over to the door, and pulled it open, and
sees Mr. Warren, the school principal standing outside.
"Ms. Haruna, may I speak to you for a moment?" Mr. Warren asked as
he motioned for her to follow him outside.
Nodding in agreement, Ms. Haruna paused briefly to turn back
around to face the class, "This shouldn't take long everyone, but I want
all of you to take out your books to page 105, and go over what we did
yesterday, because I'll have questions when I return."
Groans filled the classroom at her words.
As Ms Haruna and the principal stepped outside into the hallway,
the class had a brief moment to see four figures standing outside the
doorway, though it was hard to fully see who it was, before the door
closed behind the two adults.
"It looks like there may be some knew students today," Raye said
as she eyed the door for a few moments, as the muffled sound of voices
speaking could be heard from the hallway. "I wonder who they may be, and
why they are enrolling into this school so late into the year?"
"I hope that whoever they are that they're cute boys." Lita said
dreamily as she sat back in her seat.
"I'd just be glad if they were both cute *and*
nice," Mina said sleepily as she yawned, glancing once at the closed
door before turning her head away.
"Don't get your hopes up, Lita." Raye said, though she also had
the same hopeful expression on her face. "For all we know whoever the
new students are, they could be ugly, or they could all be girls."
Amy only quietly flipped through the pages of her textbook for a
few moments as the others talked, before finally speaking up. "Let's not
go overboard, girls. Since the four of us already have boyfriends."
"Yeah, we know, Amy." Lita said sarcastically; as she glanced at
the blue haired senshi, before turning her gaze back to the still closed
door. "Though it wouldn't hurt if we looked."
"I just wish that Ms. Haruna would just get on with it already!"
Mina whined in a low whisper, as she rolled her eyes towards the
ceiling, "If there really are some new students coming in today, I can't
wait to see what they look like."
A few minutes went past before the door reopened, and Ms. Haruna
with a sour look on her face, as she stood next to the open door,
holding it open as four figures stepped inside. 
"Class. It would seem that we have four special guests who will be
joining our classroom as of today," Ms. Haruna said in a formal tone, as
she glanced around the class, "And I believe that most of you may have
already heard of them. So I would all of you to please give a warm
welcome to Serena Kou, Seiya Kou, Yaten Kou and Taiki Kou."
Gasps of surprise filled the classroom, as the room immediately
became quiet at the announcement, as everybody's eyes immediately
riveted towards the four figures who had followed their teacher back
into the room, as all four finally stopped inside the front of the room,
and turned to face the class.
Within moments, the classroom is filled with the sound of cheers
and whistles coming from all of the students of Juban High, as they saw
the new students.
Serena was dressed in a navy blue girls school uniform, with black
shoes and white socks that went up to her knees showing pearl white
skin. Her hair hung loosely in twin ponytails that went down her back
(no meatballs), silver star shaped earrings glinting in the faint light
of the auditorium, as she stared out into the room, gauging the reaction
that she was getting from most of the male half of the classroom with a
look of annoyance on her features. 
Next up were Seiya, Taiki and Yaten dressed in their boy's school
uniforms, their long hair tied back in their usual ponytails that went
down their backs. 
As the group waited for everything to quiet down, it took a good
five minutes before the classroom was finally quiet once more, and even
then there were still loud whispers going around the room, as everyone
stared at the front of the class at the four.
"It can't be," Mina said, as she stared at the newcomers in awe,
as she stared intently at the male members of the music group, as hearts
and stars appeared in her eyes. "Guys, am I seeing things? Or am I
really seeing the Three Lights and a Star in front of me?"
"You're not seeing things, Mina." Lita said as she stared intently
at the group, as a soft sigh escaped her lips. "I take it back. Seeing
Seiya, Taiki and Yaten this close up and in person, is
*way* much better than I thought."
As she looked across the room at the students, Serena glanced at
the others, catching their eyes, and giving them a meaningful look.
"Good morning everyone. It is very nice to meet all of you."
Serena said cheerfully as she as she gazed out into the crowd, as she
stood back up.
Meanwhile, while the entire classroom was ogling the group, Ms.
Haruna turned towards the four teens, giving them a welcoming smile.
"Since this is your first day of class, I'll be lenient with the
four of you, and I won't mark you as being tardy. But please try and be
on time from now on, understood? I won't tolerate anymore tardy's or
else you will immediately get detention." She said as her expression
turned serious, as she gave the four teens stern looks.
"It won't happen again, Ms. Haruna," Taiki said calmly as he
glanced at the older woman for a moment. The others all nodded their
heads in silent agreement to their brother's words.
"Yeah, teach," Seiya said playfully as he gave Ms. Haruna his most
winning smile, and earned himself a light jab in the side from Serena's
elbow, as he glanced at the older woman for a moment, "Being late to
class won't become a habit."
"Well then, now that's settled, and you *will*
address me as Ms. Haruna, not 'teach' or any other name you can think
of, Seiya," Haruna order as she gave Seiya a dark look, before turning
her attention towards the others. "Now why don't the four of you tell us
something about yourselves?"
"Not interested," Seiya said, a bored look settling on his face as
he turned to look at the class.
"Ditto," Yaten said.
"Why bother?" Serena asked as she stared at Ms. Haruna, with
"when everyone in this entire school probably already knows everything
about us already?" she asked, her bored tone making she just said should
have been the most obvious thing in the world.
"Yes, I agree," Taiki said, "It'd be a waste of time, I'd
think."
"Oh," Haruna said in confusion, not sure how to take that bit of
news, before finally deciding to get on with the matter at hand. "Now,
let's find the four of you some seats," Ms. Haruna said as she glanced
around the room, then smiled as she spotted four empty desks near the
back.
At that same moment, everyone in the classroom were also looking
around to see where if there were any empty seats close to their own,
before looks of disappointment spread through both the male and female
population of the classroom.
"Let's make this easy for you," Ms. Haruna said, as she glanced
"Will the following four girls who's names that I call please raise
their hands?" she asked as she started calling out names, and placing
the four teens into the appropriate seats.
"Seiya, I want you to sit in the seat next to Lita; Taiki, I want
you to take the seat in front of Amy; Serena, you get the seat in
between of Raye and Mina; and Yaten, I want you to take the seat in back
of Mina."
As one, each of the girls eagerly raised their hands in the air,
while waving them frantically at the same time, as their names were
called, while at the same time trying to ignore the jealous and angry
looks they were all getting from the rest of their classmates, as the
group made their way towards them, and took their seats.
Once everyone was seated, Ms. Haruna quickly finished up on the
role call, adding Seiya's and the others names to the bottom of the list
on the roll sheet, Ms Haruna finally turned her attention towards the
chalkboard, and started class.

<hr>

About half way through after class had begun, Mina decided to take
advantage of her teachers' distraction, and slowly twisted around in her
seat to look at Serena, who was looking through her history book as Ms.
Haruna droned on.
"Hi. I'm Mina," Mina said cheerfully in a low whisper, taking a
moment to glance up to the front of the room to make sure Ms. Haruna
hadn't heard her, before turning back around to give Serena a friendly
smile, then blushed as a sudden thought came to her. "Oh yeah, I guess
you already know that since miss Haruna had you sit right next to
me."
_Great. It begins already. And in the middle of class,
too._ Serena thought morosely to herself as she glanced up at the
other blonde girl in front of her, eyeing her warily for a moment before
speaking up, keeping her voice in a similar low whisper. "Hi, Mina. So
what's up?"
"Nothing, I just wanted to say hi, and welcome you to Juban High
School." Mina said, the smile not giving an inch, even though she could
sense that Serena seemed to be a little wary of her, but wasn't about to
admit defeat so easily. "If you want, I'd be willing to show you and
your brothers around school later on."
Serena sat up a bit straighter as she stared at Mina, searching
the other girls face to see if there was any sign of a hidden motive
behind her words, but didn't see anything but sincerity in Mina's
gaze.
"Miss Kou, Miss Aino, is there something the two of you wish to
share with the rest of the class?" Ms Haruna's annoyed voice called from
the front of the room.
As both girls turned to look at the teacher, they see that Ms
Haruna was staring directly at the two of them, with an annoyed look on
her features. Glancing around the room, they also see that everyone's
attention was now directly on them also.
"No Ms. Haruna," Mina said, as she looked away in embarrassment.
"But..."
"Well then," Ms Haruna didn't look like she believed Serena's
explanation for a minute, as she glared at Mina's lowered head. "In that
case, since the two of you think that what you are talking about is more
important than today's lesson, then the both of you can just as well go
stand outside in the hall and continue your discussion, so you won't
interrupt the rest of who *are* trying to study in
peace."
"But..." Serena began, only to wince as Haruna sharply cut off
whatever she was going to say.
"I don't want to here *it*! Outside,
*Now*!" Ms Haruna ordered in an angry voice. 

<hr>

"Great, I'm in trouble on my first day of school, and it's not
even my fault," Serena muttered under her breath as she leaned against
the wall outside her classroom, as she clutched a bucket of water in
both hands.
"Look, I'm *really* sorry about this," Mina said, as
she stood a few feet away from her, holding onto her own bucket of
water, as she shot apologetic glances at Serena, "I was really trying to
make sure she didn't notice that I was talking to you in class
and..."
"Look, how many times are you going to apologize, Aino-san? No
offense really, but it's starting to get a bit old," Serena asked as she
looked over at the other blonde girl, before letting out a sigh, and
turned her head away to look down the other side of the hallway, as she
slowly slid down to sit on the cold floor, both buckets of water at her
side, "I'm not upset over it."
"Oh..." Mina said quietly as she shot Serena one last glance
before turning her attention away from the other girl.
The two remained silent for a couple of minutes staring at nothing
as they held onto the buckets, as they waited for the bell to ring, when
Serena finally broke the silence with a loud sigh, as she turned back to
face Mina, giving the other blonde girl an apologetic look.
"Look, Aino-san, I'm sorry about snapping at you like that, it's
just that I had a bad night last night that still has me a bit uptight I
guess," Serena said as she smiled at Mina for a moment. 
"No it's okay, I guess, things happen," Mina said cheerfully as
she returned the smile, "But please don't call me by my last name. Just
call me Mina if you want to."
"Sure, if you'll call me Serena," Serena said as she stood back
up, and gave Mina a sheepish look "So I was wondering, if the tour of
the school is still an option? My brothers and I probably could use all
the help we need, if we want to make it to our next classes in time."
"Sure, like I said before in class, I'm sure my friends would be
more than glad to help me show you guys around later, if you were
interested that is," she said, stopping to think a moment as she stared
at Serena in silence, before letting go of the bucket and wiped her damp
hand on the skirt of her uniform before holding out a hand towards
Serena. "Do you want to be friends?"
Serena stared in silence at the offered hand, trying to think
about whether or not she should refuse, but something deep down inside
of her stopped her from making the first choice, as she reached forward
with her free hand and clasped Mina's hand in her own and shook it.
"Sure, I could use all the friends I could make here," Serena said
giving Mina a genuine friendly smile just as the final bell rang.

<hr>

After first period, the rest of the day seemed to go by quickly,
as the four teens made their way through campus easily with the help of
Mina and her friends, and was approached more than once almost by all of
the boys in school.
During P.E., Serena sat with the girls as they did their mid-
afternoon warm-ups on the open field as they got ready to run some laps,
while the boys were busy playing a game of touch football, with Seiya
playing on the same team.
"Go, go Seiya!! Go. You can win!"
Hearing the cheers, Turning her attention to the sidelines, Serena
spots a group of cheerleaders standing on bleachers, who had stopped
their afternoon practice, to ogle and cheer on Seiya, as he raced across
the field with the football under one arm.
_Great, already one of Seiya's fan clubs have caught up with
him,_ Serena thought morosely to herself, slowly shaking her head,
as she plopped down onto the grass to watch the game.
Some of the girls were cheering as they watched as Seiya ran
across the field holding the football in his hands, as he zipped and
dodged the other players as they tried to tackle him to the ground.
As she watched the game, she also noticed that a couple of boys
who weren't playing in the game were looking in her direction, and were
pointing and whispering as they stared directly at her for a few minutes
before one broke free from the rest and made his way towards her.
He was tall, with short goldenbrown hair that barely went past his
ears, dark, violet eyes that almost looked black, as he grinned at
Serena as he took a seat in front of her, so that she would be looking
right at him.
"Hi, Serena," the boy said in a confident voice as he took a seat
next to her, sitting really close to her. "My name is Mason Carter. And
I was wondering if you would like to go out with me."
Serena eyed him over for a moment, looking him up and down, before
coming to a decision, "Sorry Mason, but I'm not interested." She said
before pointedly turning her attention back to the game in time to see
Seiya score another point.
"But why not?!" Mason exclaimed, his confident look dropping for
few seconds before coming back in full force as he decided to put on the
charm, "Come on, I won't take no for an answer."
"Well it looks like your going to have to, Mason" Serena stated
firmly as she glared at him through narrowed eyes. "Get lost."
_What's with her? No girls ever said no to me before,_ He
thought angrily to himself, frowning a bit. "I can show you a good time.
I've read all about you in that music magazine last month, and I know
what you seem to enjoy the most."
"Oh?" Serena asked as she raised an eyebrow at that statement, as
her mouth twitched into a mischievous smile, "Then if you know so much
about me from the magazine, then you *must* know my five
major turn on and offs."
"Sure I do," Mason said confidently as he sat back on his heels to
thinks for a moment, "The five things that you like that turn you on
are: cats; chocolate chip ice cream; cute boys;" the last one said with
a sexy grin, before continuing, "swimming; and comic books. This is
exactly what I was telling you about. We are so much alike, we like the
same things, that I think..."
"Hold on," Serena said cutting into Mason's dialogue, "Do you
remember what turns me off?" Serena asked in a false sweet sounding
voice, not bothering to answer his question.
"I think your five major turn offs were: Bullies, centipedes,
and..." his voice trailed off as he realized what was about to come next
as he stopped talking long enough to glance at Serena, giving her a
suspicious look.
"_And_?" Serena prompted persistently, as she gave him an
innocent look. "And what was my *last* turn off?"
"...and pushy boys who think too highly of themselves and don't
know when to quit." Mason said after a moment, as his look became
sour.
"Bingo!" Serena said, giving Mason a thumbs up, "You got it right
on the first try. Now leave me alone."
"Why you... I'm nothing like that," Mason exclaimed as he stood
up, and glared down at Serena, calming down for a moment and walked
around her to rest his hand on her shoulder, missing the dark look she
shot at his hand, "You really don't know what you'd be missing if you
turn me down without giving me a chance. If you'd give me a chance, I
can prove it to yo�OW!!" he said only to be cut off as he suddenly cried
out, as pain shot up through his hands, as Serena started to bend one of
his fingers backwards, "Let go!"
"Let's get one thing straight. One, don't touch me unless I say
you can," Serena practically snarled as she glared at Mason, as she
finally released his fingers from her grip, as the boy the stumbled back
nurse his injured hand, "Second, I already said I'm not interested, and
you are definitely *not* getting on my good side right now
by pushing it. Go find some other girl to bother with your advances."
"Fine, but you are going to regret this," Taking a moment to
return Serena's glare, Mason turned on his heel and marches back over to
his friends who were laughing after witnessing the whole thing.
"Promises, promises," Serena said dismissively as she turned back
to face her class just as the P.E. teacher was arriving.

<hr>

Serena was walking down the halls of the school, with her lunch
bag clutched tightly to her hands, as she heads for the exit, to look
for a nice, cool shady tree to sit under as she waited for the others to
catch up with her.
"Hey, Serena! Wait up!" a cheerful, unfamiliar voice called out,
startling Serena and causing her to stop in midstep just as she was
about to push open the doors leading outside.
"Huh?" Serena wondered to herself, hand still resting on the
doorframe, as she turned in the direction that the voice came from, and
spots Mina and the others coming down the hall towards her, their own
lunches clutched in their hands. "Oh hey guys what's up?" 
"We wanted to ask if you wanted to join us for lunch?" Lita said
as they finally caught with Serena, and the five girls walked placidly
together through the halls.
"Sure, I'd love too, but I wanted to wait for the guys to catch up
with me," Serena said as she glanced over her shoulder, in search of the
others, "They were almost to the front of the lunch line when I left the
cafeteria a few minutes ago."
"I'll stay here and wait for them if you want, Serena," Amy
offered as she stopped just outside the double doors, "and bring them
over once they arrive."
"Well, ok, I guess," Serena said uncertainly as she glanced back
at the other girl, "If you really don't mind?" seeing Amy shake her head
in denial, Serena nodded her head. "They shouldn't be long in coming.
The last time I saw them, they were almost to the front of the lunch
line."
"Ok, I'll see you guys in a little bit." Amy said as she watched
the others leave the doors and make their way down the steps.
"Hey I heard about what happened between you and Mason during P.E.
today," Mina said as she reached Serena and latched onto her arm in a
friendly gesture. "I wish I could have been there to see it. That jerk
had it coming for a long time. Ever since he enrolled into this school
he's been trying to pick up half the girls on campus."
"How long has he been here in this school?" Serena asked curiously
as she followed the others outside.
"He's joined the school about a month ago, him along with the rest
of his family," Mina said helpfully. "He has two sisters and a brother
attending this school also."
"There's more of them? Just great," Serena said in a disapproving
tone, "Are all of them like Mason, or is he the only one gifted with
that *charming* personality of his?" she said
sarcastically.
"All of them of almost just as bad as he is, but some of them are
okay are guess." Lita said as she turned away, to glance around before
her eyes settled on a nearby tree across the yard. "Hey guys. Look at
who's there already."
Seated under the oak tree, was a familiar aqua haired girl reading
a book while taking bites out of her sandwhich, while up in the tree the
group could almost make out the figure of a sandy haired boy lounging
out on one of the branches.
"Alex and Michelle." Rei said with a slight groan, earning herself
a confused look from Serena.

<hr>

"Well look at who's here, Michelle," a familiar voice called out,
in an bored voice, "Who would have thought we would have met up with you
again so soon, kitten."
As one, Serena and the other girls turned around to look at the
speakers, seeing at once that it was Alex and Michelle, dressed in their
school uniforms.
Alex was dressed in a navy blue boys uniform, and was sitting in
one of the branches of the tree that the group had been heading towards,
with her arms resting behind her head, pillowing her head from the rough
surface of the tree.
Sitting at the foot of the tree was Michelle, dressed in her
girls' school uniform, glancing every now and then at a book that rested
in her lap, as she took bites out her sandwich. Hearing Alex's words,
the aquamarine haired girl glanced up, and saw the other girls coming,
as she gave Serena a warm welcoming smile.
"Why hi, Alex, Michelle. The two of you go to this school too?"
Serena asked casually, as a slight frown appeared on her face, as she
looked towards the other two girls, before it disappeared completely.
"And what's with this 'kitten' jazz?" she asked, putting her hands on
her hips as she scowled up at Alex from the bottom of the tree.
"That's what you reminded me of, the first time we met yesterday,"
Alex said sincerely, as she grinned down at Serena from her perch, "You
certainly have the claws for it from what I hear."
"Why you..." Serena began only to be cut off as Michelle cut
in.
"Alex, be nice." Michelle chided as she glanced up at her
companion with a disapproving look, before turning her attention back to
the others as they made themselves comfortable around the tree.
"Shoot," Raye said under her breath as she spots the two older
girls already at their favorite lunchtime hang out spot. 
The Inner senshi all took only a moment to give the two older
girls dirty looks before, as they took seats around the tree, turning
their backs, and facing Serena with questions.
"You already know Alex and Michelle?" Mina demanded, keeping her
voice in a low whisper, as she looked up at the two older girls for a
moment "Where and when did you meet up with them?"
"Yeah, I only met them briefly yesterday, when my brothers and I
were just arriving in Tokyo at the airport yesterday afternoon." Serena
said with a slight indifferent shrug as she looked around at the other
girls.
"Her younger brother literally ran into us just as Alex and I had
exited the airport terminal to go wait outside for Darien and Nathan,"
Michelle cut in, giving her companion a warning glance, putting away her
book as she stood up and dusted off her skirt, "Our meeting was cut
short when their ride finally arrived outside the airport"
"You have a younger brother?!" Mina exclaimed as her eyes widened
in surprise. "What's his name, and how old is he, and how come I don't
remember hearing about him in any of the magazines."
"His name is Sammy, he's twelve," Serena said as she glanced at
Mina for a moment, as she stopped to take a bite out of her lunch, "and
the reason that nobody's heard much about him, is because we're trying
to keep him out of the spotlight during our music career."
"So what's there to do in Tokyo? Any interesting places you guys
think I should go visit? In between school and concerts that is." She
asked with a slight grin.
"Well there's the National Library downtown, that has great
selection in literary books from around the world," Amy said, after
taking a seat next to Serena, as she reached into her backpack and
pulled out a large library book, "I spend most of my time there when I
need a quiet place to study."
"No way, Amy! The library is where *you* like to
spend all the time," Mina exclaimed, as she cut in as she pushed her way
in between Serena and Amy, so that she could sit in between the two. "If
your looking for something fun to do, Serena, you *have*
to go to the Crown Arcade. Everyone goes there after school. Or to the
local Karaoke bar, that's two blocks down."
"I think I've heard of the Crown Arcade," Serena said as she
thought for a moment, before she finally remembered where she had seen
the name from. "Oh, yeah! I almost went there last night when I was
sightseeing, but something came up, so I never got the chance to go
inside." She said as she turned towards Mina, "Is it really as great as
your making out to be?"
"Sure, Serena. Crown Arcade has lots of different types of video
games, and stuff and they serve the best food there too." Lita said,
answering before Mina could say anything.
"And their ice cream sundae's are to die for." Michelle supplied
as joined into the conversation. "You should really go to the Crown and
try one when you have the time, Serena."
"That sounds good to me," Seiya's voice said from behind the
group. "Maybe we ought to try it sometime, you guys."
As the girls turned in the direction that Seiya's voice was coming
in, they see him and the others making their ways towards their tree,
looking a little worse for wear, as they were being trailed from behind
by a large group of girls with star struck looks in their eyes, begging
for autograph's.
When Serena saw what was happening, she immediately stood up and
advanced on the girls.
"All right, ladies. That's enough of that. Can't my brothers enjoy
a quiet lunch without all of you hounding them all day?" she demanded as
she crossed her arms over her chance to glare at the girls. "Now beat it
all of you."
"How come *those* girls get to stay around, if
*we've* got to leave?" one of the girls demanded as she
pointed directly at Mina and the other girls, "they don't deserve to be
around you guys as much as *we* do."
"Well that's where your wrong," Serena said with a slight smirk as
she stared directly at the girl who had spoken, "unlike
*you* guys, I'm letting them stay, because
*they*," she said, jerking a thumb in the senshi's
direction, as she pulled out a pair of sunglasses out of thin air and
put them on, and glared at the other girls from behind them, as she
crossed her arms across her chest, "are my friends, and their the only
girls in this school who haven't hounded my brothers the first time they
saw them. Plus the fact that I'm their sister, and unless my brothers
say otherwise, that they want you girls here, *I* have
full say about it, got it? Now beat it!"
After a lot of glaring and dark looks directed at Serena, as the
group of girls faced off with her, they finally backed down, and headed
off, muttering and grumbling as they shot nasty looks back at her before
they disappeared.
"Geez, those girls are a nuisance," Yaten complained as he took a
seat under the shade, as he grinned over at Serena as she returned to
her seat, "Thanks Sere."
"Anytime you guys," Serena said smugly as she took her lunch back
up into her hands, and resumes eating.
"Why'd you do that for?" Lita asked curiously after she turned her
gaze away from the retreating girls, and looked at Serena, "Don't you
think that was a little rude, Serena?"
Serena made a muffled sound, and shrugged her shoulders at that,
as she swallowed the mouthful of food, "Maybe, but not really, Lita. The
guys and I have had to deal with this sort of stuff ever since we
started our singing career, so we worked out a system.
*I'll* handle the girls who get out of hand around
them..."
"And we'll handle the boys who try to get out of hand around
Serena," Seiya cut in, as he opened up his lunchbox, and dug in. "This
way we don't have to worry about being practically
*mauled* by our *adoring* fans, if we're not
careful," then he noticed the dark glares that he was now getting from
the current girls present, and quickly amended "No offense girls. I
don't mind the attention I get, but a lot of the *other*
girls we've had to deal with, are almost impossible to deal with,
without someone getting their feelings hurt first."
"Not to mention that *I* have to deal with guys like
that Mason Carter guy nearly on a daily basis," Serena added
pertinently, as she finished her lunch and folded up the paper bag. "All
of them always seem to have one thing on their mind only when they see
me."
"Oh, come on, it couldn't be *that* bad," Raye said,
though her tone sounded uncertain as she stared at the other girl
curiously.
"Yeah, I'd die to live the kind of life you guys lead," Mina
chimed in cheerfully, as she gained a dreamy look on her features, stars
appearing immediately in her eyes, "All the places you've been to, the
sight's you must've seen, eating exotic foods. I've always dreamed of
one day becoming an idol myself."
"Not to mention meeting ultra cute boys to boot," Lita cut in as
she also gained a dreamy expression, _Especially the cute guys,_
she thought, before turning her attention back to the others, "That's
the kind of life I would just *love* to have."
"It's not as glamorous as your making it out to be, minna"
Michelle cut in as she glanced at the group, "Like Serena and the others
said, there *are* the ups and downs to being popular."
"Yeah, take Michelle and myself, for example," Alex cut in, as she
leaped off of her perch on the tree branch and landed on her feet,
dusting off her uniform after landing, "We have to deal with practically
the same thing *they* do because of our careers. Though I
don't mind the attention that much."
"Their always trying to ask me out on dates, and those who I
*do* decide to go out with are either nice to me during
the entire date," Serena said with a slight shrug of her shoulders, "or
some are a bunch of complete jerks, who want to try and impress their
friends by going out with a celebrity." She said just as the bell
signaling the end of lunch rang.

<hr>

~After school~

Seiya walked through the halls of school, on his way back from the
school gymnasium, tired and worn out from a grueling two hours of trying
out for Juban High's Americanized style Football team, and was now ready
to call it a day, when he spots Serena wondering around outside looking
for something.
"Hey, Serena! Wait up!" Seiya shouted as he rushed after Serena,
slowing down once he sees her stop to wait for him. "What's the big
rush, Sere?" he asked as he finally came alongside her.
"I'm going to be late for the school Judo Club I signed up with
earlier, Seiya." Serena said without breaking stride, though she did
slow down a bit, "It took me forever to get directions to where they are
holding it on campus, and I was told that it should be around here
somewhere." She said as she glanced at the numbers listed on doors, as
they walked together, "So tell me. How did Football tryouts go?"
"Great." Seiya said enthusiastically as he grinned at her, "I
think Coach Stevens might actually allow me to join the team. Do you
mind if I stick around to see how you do in the club? I don't have
anything else planned. And how was aerobics tryouts?"
"I don't know, yet. The coach said that she'll let me know in a
couple of days." Serena said with a slight shrug, as she turned towards
him, and started walking backwards with her arms crossed behind her
back. "And sure you can come along too if that's what you want to do,"
Serena said as she glanced down the halls before her eyes finally
stopped on one door, and broke out into a grin, as she grabbed Seiya's
hand, and starts pulling him along "There it is. Come on, I've only got
a couple of minutes before it starts."
"Serena wait up will you?" Seiya protested as he was half dragged
along behind Serena, as he tried to tug his arm free of her grip, "You
don't have to pull me along behind you, you know."
Just as she reached the door, Serena finally let Seiya's wrist go,
giving him an apologetic smile before turning once more to face the
double doors that led into the practice room, and pushed them open,
allowing the two teens to get their first glimpse of the room.
The room, which had once been a normal classroom, had been turned
into a miniature dojo, with place mats lining the floors, a few practice
dummies standing up along the walls, and two punching bags in the center
of the room. 
Standing off to the side of the room, a small class of students
dressed in gi's standing on placemats were following their instructors
orders as they followed in the procedures given to them.
Glancing up from his class, the teacher see's Seiya and Serena as
they make their way towards them from across the room, and he motions to
two of his students to take over for him, and leaves the group to
approach the two teens.
The teacher was a man who looked to be in his mid-late twenties,
though he was still well built. Dressed in a red gi, his long reddishf-
brown hair, and was tied into a ponytail.
"Good afternoon. I'm Maxwell Stanton," he said in greeting, as he
eyed the two newcomers with open eyes, "You must be new to school,
because I don't remember having seen the two of you around campus
before. What can I do for the two of you?"
"Hai, My name is Serena Kou, and this is my brother Seiya." Serena
said politely as she bowed towards Maxwell, with her hands folded in
front of her body, "This is our first day of school, and I'm here to see
about joining your club. I heard about this club from around school."
"Hmmm... That's good to hear, I'll be more than happy to welcome
anybody who wants to join up," Maxwell said as he nodded in agreement to
Serena. "And what about you, young man?" Maxwell asked as he turned
towards Seiya, eyeing the younger man. "Are you here to join the Judo
club also?"
"Nothing for me, Mr. Stanton," Seiya said as he backed off,
raising his hands defensively, "I'm just here to watch."
"No harm in watching, I always say," Maxwell said as he turned his
attention back to Serena, eyeing her for a moment, before motioning
towards an open door, "You can go into that room, and have your pick of
any of the practice gi's to put on while you're here. And you can take
it home with you if you want to. We've got plenty to go around."
"Thanks. I'll see you in a couple of minutes, Seiya." Serena
exclaimed as she rushed towards the door and disappeared through it.
Shaking his head, Seiya reluctantly looked around for a place to
sit down that was out of the way of the students, when he heard familiar
voices calling his name. 
"Hey, Seiya!"
Turning his attention in the direction that the voices were coming
from, he spots Lita and Alex making their way towards him, both dressed
in gi's. Lita's gi was a light greenish color, while Alex's was a dull
yellow-brown color.
"Hey what are the two of you doing here?" Seiya asked as the two
girls approached, "Don't tell me you attend this club too?"
"Actually we help founded this club with Stanton's help," Lita
said sheepishly as she took a seat next to Seiya. "What are
*you* doing here, Seiya-kun?"
"Don't tell me that you're into this stuff also." Alex said as
she took a seat next on the other side of him.
"Not exactly," Seiya said with a slight shrug of his shoulders,
"footballs more my thing these days," he added as he turned his
attention back towards the changing rooms for a moment, before turning
his attention back towards the two girls, "I'm here to wait for
Serena."
"Serena?" Lita said, a note of surprise in her voice. "She's
thinking of joining the club?"
"She wouldn't last ten minutes in here with the rest of us." Alex
said with a look of concern crossing her features, as an sudden
overwhelming feeling of protectiveness came over her at the thought of
Serena fighting.
"What makes you say that," Seiya demanded as he glanced at Alex,
eyes narrowing.
"She looks too frail and weak to handle it." Alex said, as she
crossed her arms across her chest, "No offense, Seiya. But, someone like
your sister shouldn't be practicing martial arts, when she could be--"
she began only to stop, as a confused look appeared. _Why am so
worried about Serena for? I barely even know her yet--_
"'When I could be--' what, Alex?" Serena's voice called over.
Surprised at the sound of Serena's voice, the trio's gaze turned
in the direction that they had heard Serena's voice coming from, they
see her standing against a nearby wall next to the doorway, dressed in a
pure white gi, with black slippers on her feet, long blond hair tied
back into a braid, with her arms crossed over her chest as she stared at
them. And from the expression on her face, it was obvious to all of them
that she had heard every single word that had been spoken.
"Nothing, Serena. I was just thinking out loud," Alex said
quickly, _How long was she standing over there?_ she wondered
silently to herself, as she stared after the other blond girl as she
made her way towards them. "What's this I hear about you joining the
club, kitten? You don't look the type to dirty their hands in this kind
of thing."
"Now you did it," Seiya muttered under his breath as he frowned at
Alex.
Alex looked towards Seiya giving him an confused look, trying to
figure out what he meant by that statement, but she realized that the
answer was soon coming as Serena approached them.
"It's exactly what Seiya told you Alex, I'm planning on joining
this club if they'll allow me to that is," Serena said with a shrug,
glaring at Alex for a moment as she tightened the belt on her gi,
marching right up to Alex, giving the taller girl an angry glare, as she
poked Alex hard with one finger. "Let's get something straight Alex
Tenou. I'm not some pushover little girl who hurts easily, and needs to
be protected. I can handle myself perfectly well." She said then turned
away, "I figure that this way I can get some practice in. If you guys
will excuse me, I need to go talk to Mr. Stanton so I can find out what
he wants me to do."
After a few minutes of talking with Stanton the two finally came
to the front of the class, with Serena standing to the left of Stanton,
keeping her arms crossed behind her back in a relaxed posture, while
Alex and Lita stayed seated on the floor next to Seiya.
"Class, it would look like we will be welcoming a new member to
our club," Maxfield said as he looked over the faces of everyone in the
class. "But as all of you know, she'll have to pass a combat test before
she'll be allowed to join." Looking over the class, his gaze finally
settled on one of the male students, and he beckoned to him with his
hands. "Mason, can you please stand up and come over here?"
Mason was a tall young man, around the age of 18, blue eyes, and
black hair that barely went past his shoulders. Once he was up and on
his feet, he walked over to Serena and Maxfield until he was standing
right in front of them.
"Serena, I would like you to face off with Mason," Maxfield said
as he met and held Serena's gaze, "If you win this match you will have
proven yourself worthy of joining this club. Do you understand?"
"Hey Serena!" Alex called just before the match began.
"What?!" Serena said.
"I'll tell you what," Alex said confidentially, as she watched
Serena slowly turn her attention "If you win against Mason, kitten, I'll
treat you to an ice cream sundae at the Crown Arcade later." Alex said
with a small smirk on her features.
Turning back to look at Alex, Serena gave the other girl a bright
smile. "You better mean that, Alex, because it's a deal."

<hr>

The fight didn't even last two minutes.
_This shouldn't take long at all to beat her. She doesn't look
that tough at all._ Mason thought smugly as he charged at Serena, he
launched into a flying kick, aiming for her stomach planning to knock
the wind out of her, only to wind up kicking nothing but air.
Before he could react to her sudden disappearance, a sudden well
placed kick to his back sent him sprawling to the ground face first.
Springing back to his feet, Mason spun around to see Serena standing a
couple of feet away, in a fighting stance, with legs spread apart and
hands ready to strike, as a small grin spread across her lips.
"Ready to give up?" Serena asked tauntingly as she glared at
Mason.
"Not on your life," Mason snapped as, with a low growl of anger,
he began charged once again. Mason launched an full out attack of
punches and kicks at Serena, only to have them all blocked and
counterattacked. Lashing out with his leg to try and trip her up, she
only flipped over, landing on her hands and flipping back over and away
from Mason, as she lashed out with her left leg.
"Your sisters very good," Maxwell said as he watched the fight
from his spot next to Seiya. "I've never seen that type of fighting
style before."
"She's a lot better than good. She can beat both our brothers and
me hands down. And I think she's been waiting all day to do work off
some steam," Seiya said with a smirk, not taking his eyes off of the
fight even once. "Mason's just lucky Serena's holding back right now, or
else he'd really be in trouble if she ever decided to go full out."
"You call *that* holding back?!" Maxwell exclaimed
as his eyes widened to almost the size of saucers, as he watched in
disbelief, as he stared first at Seiya, then back at the fight going on,
just as Serena landed a punch to Mason's stomach that sent the boy
flying a feet off of the mat, to land on the cushioned floor, but didn't
rise again.
The chosen referee to the match walked over to Mason's unconscious
form, to check him out, then shook his head as he stood up and stared
pointedly at Serena, before announcing. "Match, goes to Serena Kou."
A loud cheer rang throughout the room, as most of the girls
crowded around Serena to give their congratulations to her.
"Whoa, I can't believe that you were able to actually beat Mason,"
One girl exclaimed as she stared at Serena.
"Yeah, he's like the next to last best fighter in our club next to
Alex, Lita and Mr. Stanton, and not even Mason's been able to beat
*them* in combat."
"Nice going Serena," Seiya said as he made his way through the
crowd, which parted quickly to make room for him when they saw who he
was, until he was finally standing next to Serena, "though I think you
overdid it a bit."
"You know me and food, Seiya," Serena said sheepishly, as she
grinned at Seiya, their eyes meeting for a moment, "I'd do anything for
food, even for sweets."
"I have to congratulate you, Ms Kou," Maxfield said as he made his
way to the front of the room, and stood in front of Serena and the
others, "That was amazing," looking her over for a moment, before
finally shrugging his shoulders, and held out his hand towards her.
"Welcome to the club."

<hr>

~Awhile Later, Crown Arcade~

"Someone remind me to *never* make another
*food* bet with Serena again," Alex groaned, after
checking her wallet to make sure she had enough money on her to pay for
everything, as she and the others watched Serena gobble down her fourth
chocolate chip and vanilla ice cream sundae in only half an hour. "Where
does she put all of it?" she muttered under her breath.
Michelle sat next to Alex as she ate her sundae in peace, keeping
her full attention on her ice cream, was the only one close enough to
Alex to hear her exact words, and she giggled, gaining herself a dark
look from Alex.
Lita sat across from them, in between Yaten and Taiki, flirting
with them both excessively, as she tried to get them into a
conversation, while at the same time was busy stirring what left in her
bowl of ice cream, and licking off the spoon.
Almost immediately after they were out of the dojo, Serena had
called on Alex's sundae debt to her, and after searching the school for
Taiki and Yaten, they had all headed for the Arcade.
Seiya was busy savoring a strawberry sundae smothered in caramel
sauce and chopped nuts; Taiki was busy eating from a medium sized bowl
filled with rainbow sherbet.
"I hope we're not tying you up for anything that you might have
had planned to do today, Alex." Serena said as she glanced up from her
sundae, as she nodded towards Michelle and Lita, "You and Michelle must
have had something planned today. Maybe practicing for a concert or
something else important?"
"Are you sure about that?" Serena asked as she eyed the three.
"No, it's okay, really Serena," Michelle said, as she smiled at
Serena, "Actually, we were going to meet up with some friends here
anyway."
"Yeah," Lita said as she looked over at Serena. "I didn't have
much planned for today, Serena. Except that I'm supposed to meet up with
Mina and the others here soon." She said, just as Andrew decided to come
over to talk.
Andrew was dressed in a pair of white pants and green shirt,
wearing an apron around his waist as he used the apron to dry his hands
on.
"Hello ladies," Andrew said as he stopped beside their table. "Who
are your new friends?" he asked as he looked around the table at the new
faces, before his eyes settled on Serena, as recognition settled in,
"Hey, it's you. Serena, right? I was wondering where did you go last
night?" Andrew asked, concern evident his voice "You disappeared so
suddenly Serena."
"Oh, hi Andrew," Serena said pleasantly, after staring at his face
for a moment before finally remembering who he was as she smiled up at
Andrew from her seat, "Sorry about disappearing like that yesterday, but
I remembered that I *had* to get somewhere soon, so I left
without really saying goodbye." 
"That's all right," Andrew said, returning her smile with one of
his own, as a small blush crept up to his cheeks at her comment, "I
guess I shouldn't have been paying more attention."
"Sere, you know this guy?" Seiya asked as his eyes remained firmly
on Andrew, who looked uncomfortable from under the scrutiny he was now
receiving from Seiya, Taiki and Yaten.
"Andrew, how do you know Serena?" Lita asked as she eyed Andrew
curiously, at the same time that Seiya had voiced his question.
"Yeah," Serena said, resting a hand on Seiya's shoulder in a
warning gesture, then shook her head at him when he turned his attention
towards her before removing her hand. "We met each other across the
street last night. Andrew, these guys here are my brothers, Seiya, Taiki
and Yaten."
"Nice to meet you," Andrew said after a moment as he glanced at
the three boys in the booth, before turning his attention towards Lita
to answer her question. 
"Darien introduced us yesterday, out on the street outside the
electronics shop, while on their way here," Andrew said, as he looked at
Serena, before the expression on his face sobered up. "I was on my way
back to work when I heard about the monster attack in the park being
broadcast on one the display windows, when they came across me."
"Darien?!" Seiya, Taiki and Yaten chorused as they stared at
Serena, once hearing this little bit of information, while Serena tried
to wave off their possible incoming questions, as a slight blush crept
up her cheeks.
"Now, who's this Darien character?" Yaten asked as he looked at
the others around the table, "and how did you meet up with him,
Sere?"
"We sort of *literally* ran into each other on the
streets last night, while I was out sightseeing," Serena said as a
slight blush crept up to her cheeks, "he offered to show me around town,
when we ran into Andrew at the electronics store, and heard about the
attack in town. Then he ran off somewhere."
Andrew stuck around for ten more minutes to talk with the group
before he finally went back to work as more students started piling into
the arcade, either heading straight for the arcade games or the front
counter to place their food orders.
Just then Mina and Amy came into the arcade. Mina was dressed in a
white cotton blouse with blue slacks and tennis shoes, and had Artemis
draped over one shoulder. Amy was dressed in a yellow sundress, with
white sandals on her feet, and was carrying Luna securely in her
arms.
"We're here!" Mina cried out excitedly as she and the others made
their way towards the booth, as she looked directly at the others in the
group. "Hi guys, how's it going?"
"Meow." Artemis said in greeting as he tried to look like an
ordinary cat towards the four strangers.
"Hi Mina," Serena said as she glanced over. "Cute cats." She said
as she looked at the two cat's, instantly noticing the strange golden
crescent moon marks on their foreheads, before reaching out under the
table to kick at Yaten to get their attention. 
"Yo." Yaten said, giving Serena a dirty look for the kick, as he
reached down to rub his bruised leg, before noticing that her gaze
wasn't on him, and followed her gaze to Luna and Artemis and see's the
marks. 
"Hiya," Seiya said cheerfully as he pushed away what was left in
his bowl of ice cream.
"Mina you guys are late," Michelle said reproachfully. "What
happened this time?"
"Amy's computer class ran late again today," Mina said with a
shrug, before turning her attention back to the others, "Oh, yeah this
is my cat. His name is Artemis."
"And this is Luna," Amy said.
"Great names for them, we have a female cat back at our apartment
building, named Hera." Serena said as she eyed Artemis intensely for a
moment, making the both cat's sweat a bit, before holding out her hands
towards Luna, "May I pet her?"
"I don't think that's a good idea. Luna's not exactly friendly
around other people," Amy said quickly, trying to think of a way.
"Don't worry about it, I have a special way with animals." Serena
said as she reached out a hesitant hand towards Luna, and lightly petted
Luna's head, earning a deep rumbling purr from the cat, much to the
surprise to Amy and the others.
"That's a first," Alex muttered as she watched Serena cozy up to
Luna.
"See what I mean?" Serena said cheerfully, before turning her
attention towards Artemis who was watching everything skeptically, "as
she reached out towards Artemis, "And how does this handsome guy, remain
so cute?" she asked putting on the charm, as she petted Artemis.
"Meow..." Artemis said as he preened at the compliments Serena had
given him, and really put on a show of being a perfect gentleman, by
letting Serena fuss over him, gently bumping the top of his head against
her hand, and purred loud enough to wake the dead.
_Show off,_ Luna thought silently to herself as she watched
the humiliating display her companion was doing, though she seemed to be
enjoying herself under the administrative hands of Yaten as he stroked
and petted her in all the right places.
"You know, those are really strange looking marks on your cat's
foreheads," Yaten commented as he looked directly at Luna's forehead,
before returning his gaze back to the girls, as he gently traced a
finger over the crescent moon mark on Luna's forehead, "I've never this
type of mark on a cat before."
"They've always had them." Lita said quickly, as she gave the
group a sheepish grin, "there's nothing unusual about the marks at
all."
"I didn't say there was something unusual about it," Yaten said
with an impish smile, as he set Luna back down onto the floor, much to
Luna's displeasure.
"You said that you had a cat also?" Amy said, deciding to change
the subject, "What kind is it?"
"You could call Hera almost a tabby type of cat," Serena said with
a slight shrug. "She has brown fur, with black stripes over different
parts of her body, a long fluffy tail, and violet eyes."
"Violet eyes?" Alex exclaimed, as she eyed Serena and the others
warily, for a moment. "What kind of cat has violet eyes?"
"Hera's a special breed of cat," Seiya said, as he glanced down at
his wrist watch a moment later, before standing up, "Guys we've got to
be going. Sammy's probably back at the apartment by now, and his ice
cream's melting, plus the fact we're scheduled to go to the recording
studio in an hour." He said before turning around to look at the girls
again, "And thanks again for the ice cream treat, Alex." He added, with
a slight smile.
The others immediately stood up, and pushed back their chairs as
they moved away from the table, and headed after the Seiya, with Serena
being the last out.
"Yeah thanks again Alex, we *really* should do this
again sometimes," Serena said as she hurried after, after the others.
"See you guys at school tomorrow," Mina called after them as the
glass doors swung shut behind the group, before turning her attention
back towards the others, just as Luna spoke up.
"There's was something about that girl," Luna murmured softly to
herself, as she looked out the restaurant window to watch Sernea and her
brothers walking down the street, talking to each other, until they were
completely out of sight. 
"What was that Luna? Is something wrong?" Amy asked as she took a
seat in front of Luna, staring at her.
"When that girl reached out and touched me, I could sense
something strange coming from her," Luna said as she turned her
attention back towards the others at the table, as her eyes fastened on
Artemis "Artemis you must have felt it too."
"Yeah, I felt it too," Artemis said, as he stretched out from his
spot on the floor, "it felt like some kind of energy was radiating off
of her when she touched me."
"Don't tell me that you guys think that Serena and her brothers
might be new enemies," Mina exclaimed, sounding completely appalled,
then noticed all the strange looks directed her way, by other customers,
and realized how exactly loud she had been and lowered her voice back
into a whisper. "Their nice."
"Yeah, Luna," Lita said disdainfully as she frowned at the black
cat, "You always say that about everyone you meet, and look how wrong
you always turn out to be."
"For once, I have to agree with Mina and Lita," Alex said as she
glowered at the two cats, "Those four have their moments at times, but I
like them too."
"I am *not* that bad!" Luna protested angrily
through gritted teeth at Lita's words, as she glared at the brunette,
then quickly glanced around the arcade to make sure no one else had
heard her before continuing, "So I made a few mistakes in the past two
years, so sue me." She finished with a loud indignant 'hmph', before
becoming serious again, "besides this time I'm sure about it. You even
heard Artemis say that *he* felt it too."
"No, you don't understand." Luna protested as she glanced around
at the girls surrounding her, "There was something almost, familiar
about the energy I felt from Serena." not that kind of energy," she
said firmly.
"Do you think that Serena might be a sailor senshi like the rest
of us, Luna?" Mina asked after a few moments, "If she is, that be
*so* cool!"
"She just might be. She could be a new senshi, or a new enemy that
we haven't faced yet," Luna said, her tone sounding slightly annoyed, as
she thought for a moment, before turning her attention towards Artemis
for his advice, "What do *you* think Artemis? Do you think
that it could be possible that Serena might be a sailor senshi?"
"Well if she's a new sailor Senshi, she could be either Sailor
Moon, or Sailor Earth, since those are the only two sailors we haven't
found yet," Artemis said cheerfully as he stretched out, before moving
his legs until they were resting underneath his body, "Though I think
she might be more along the lines of being Sailor Moon."
"Well if she *is* one of us, then she would be a
great help to the team, if her martial arts abilities anything to go
on," Lita said. "She was really kicking butt today at school in the Judo
club."
_I just wonder why we haven't found her until now,_ Luna
thought silently to herself, as she glanced once more out the window in
the direction the foursome had disappeared in.
"Well then, we might as well get going ourselves, if we don't want
to be late for the meeting at Raye's shrine," Michelle said as she stood
up, pushing her chair away from the table.
"We'll take my car, it's just around the corner," Alex said,
looking up from inspecting the bill, a large sweat drop rolling down the
back of her head as she read the price, before she pulled out a couple
of bills and tossed it onto the table, and followed Michelle and the
others out of the arcade.
Just as the group stepped out of the arcade, their communicators
started beeping. Quickly glancing around at the crowded street, they
hurried towards Alex's sports car and piled in.
Pulling out her communicator, Lita switched it on, to see Sailor
Mar's haggard and agitated face on the view screen. "What is it Sailor
Mars? Is Raven back, and causing trouble again?"
"Yes, but it's not Raven this time. It's two different people
causing trouble this time, and they are just as powerful as Raven was."
Mars said as she looked away for a moment, to watch the fight. "it looks
like we've got some new enemies this time it's in the town square." Mars
said, "Darien and the guys are here too, but we need help! How long
before the rest of you can get here?!" she demanded.
"Here, give me that communicator," Before Lita could answer, Alex
reached between the front car seats to pluck Lita's communicator out of
her hands, so that she could speak to Mars, "Calm down Mars, we'll get
there in no time at all. You guys just try and hold out as long as you
can." She said impatiently as she clicked off the communicator before
Mars could reply, and hands it back to Lita.
"Alex! You didn't have to..." Lita began only to be cut off.
"We'll discuss it later, Lita. You guys better have your seatbelts
on," she said as she started the engine, and pulled out, driving at a
fast speed, as both Michelle and the other girls hurried to put their
seatbelts on, while at the same time try and hold onto Luna and Artemis.

<hr>

~Meanwhile, Elsewhere~

Serena, Seiya, Taiki and Yaten rode up the elevator to their
apartment in silence as they thought back to that days events as they
waited for the elevator to stop. Finally Serena was the first to break
the silence.
"So what do you guys think of those cats Mina and Amy had?" Serena
asked as she folded her hands in front of her body, still clutching the
carton of ice cream in her hands. "Do you guys think that they are from
Hera's home planet, Taiki?"
"I don't know Serena," Taiki said as he looked over at Serena,
"For all we could know, those two cats could be just a couple of normal
earth cats."
"Yeah, but still, those marks on their foreheads are almost a dead
give away, I'd think," Serena said as she looked away to stare out the
elevator windows to look down at the streets, "And
*normal* Earth cats don't have eyes like theirs. There was
just something too..." stopping to think of a word.
"Too human? Too intelligent?" Seiya's said helpfully, catching
Serena's attention as she and the others turned their attention directly
at him. "What? I noticed it too, you guys. Even during that short length
of time, both Luna and Artemis reminded me too much of Hera. Especially
when she's trying to pretend to be a normal cat."
"Not to mention how Artemis immediately started cozying up to you
when you called him both handsome and cute, Serena," Taiki said with a
slight chuckle at the memory, "if *that's* not a sign that
those two aren't your average cats, then I don't know what else is."
"And their aura's were off. Which means, if they
*are* from Mau, then I wonder what are they doing this far
out in the Milky Way galaxy?" Seiya said, as he stared off for a moment,
"No one's ever traveled this far out before in years."
"They could be guardian cats, just like Hera is for us," Taiki
said as his eyes narrowed in concentration, "There's no other way to
explain it."
Just then, the elevator finally came to a stop on their floor.
"Let's talk about this later tonight," Serena said as she stepped
out onto the carpeted floor, and turned back around to face the others
as they stepped out of the elevator, as they made their way to the
apartment doors, "I want to do some more sightseeing today, once I
change. Let's all head into my apartment first."
Once they were all in front of Serena's door, she pulled out her
room card key and slid it through the panel on the door, and turned the
knob, and they went inside.
Immediately upon entering the apartment, they spot Sammy sitting
on the couch watching anime on TV. Next to him sat a teenage girl, with
long dark brown hair pulled back with a blue bandana, dressed in a t-
shirt and tight blue jeans. At the sound of the front door opening the
girl was the only one to look up, and sees the others enter the room.
"Hey guys, what took you so long to get back home?" she asked as
she stood up to greet them. "I thought school was over hours ago."
"Hi Hera," Serena said with a slight smile, as she saw her friend,
but then frowned a bit when she realized that Hera was human at the
moment, "How come you're in your human form now?" she asked.
"We got hungry, so I changed into my human body, and cooked up
something for us to eat while we waited for you guys to get home," Hera
said with a slight shrug of her shoulders, "It's still cooking even
now."
"We were a little detained after school," Seiya said as he wrapped
an arm around Serena's shoulders, "Serena here managed to win an ice
cream bet with of the girls at school, and we were all treated to
it."
"And you didn't come back home so we could come get some ice cream
too?" Sammy demanded, finally paying attention to what the others were
saying at the first mention of ice cream, as he turned down the volume
on the TV set.
"Chill Sammy," Yaten said as he made his way to the couch, and
plopped down onto the cushions and kicked off his shoes. "We brought you
both back some ice cream so you wouldn't be left out."
Hera rushed over to grab the bag out of Taiki's hands, and pulled
the bag open to reach inside to lift up the lid of both of the
containers to peek inside at their contents. "Mocho Chocolate Chip! And
Rainbow Sherbet," she exclaimed happily as she turned back towards the
others with a grin plastered on her face. "Thanks you guys. We can have
this for dessert after dinner tonight."
"Hey, guys look at the TV," Yaten called out, as he made his way
towards the couch. Reaching over, he picked up the remote control and
turned the volume back up, as the others turned to watch the screen, to
see a news report message showing on the screen.
"We interrupt this scheduled program to bring you late breaking
news. This is Hiroshi Ryouji bringing you terrifying news. Earlier
today, in downtown Tokyo, the Town Square was attacked by a group of ice
monsters of unknown origins. The Sailor Senshi and the Generals are
fighting the monsters even as we speak, but things are not looking very
good for our local heroes. We're going live now to the scene of the
battle..."
The screen changes to show another reporter looking worriedly over
his shoulder at the ensuing battle every few seconds, as it looked like
he was trying to look as unnoticeable as possible as he kept his back
pinned to a wall, before his attention finally snapped back to the
camera before him, after being told that they were on the air.
"Thanks Hiroshi. This is Yamato Hibiki reporting you from the
Town Square, and I'm telling you at viewers out there that it's become a
madhouse down here. Behind me you can see the frozen forms of these
monsters victims scattered around the square."
Camera zooms in to the battle taking place to show frozen statues
of people everywhere.
"The attack began early this afternoon, freezing everything
that moved before they could escape. And it would seem that these new
monsters are being led by two powerful beings calling themselves Puck
and Frostbite. The Sailor Senshi and their allies are holding them back
as long as they can, but things don't look good for... What? What is
it?"
The sound of somebody yelling in the background from behind the
camera caused Yamato to spin around in fear at what was approaching, and
the camera zoomed in on a blue haired teenage girl in dressed all in
blue turning around to look in their direction, and started moving
purposely towards them.
"Oh, no it's Frostbite!" Yamato's voice cried out in alarm as
he and the camera man started to back away as far as they could.
"Well, well. What do we have here?" Frostbite's voice rang out as
she grinned evilly at the cowering reporters, "A couple of nosey
newshounds. Well, then let me help you out. I have a message for a
certain Sailor Senshi out there calling herself Sailor Star Dreamer.
Last night you seriously harmed one of our colleagues, and we're here
for a little payback. If we don't see you soon, I'll turn my Icejin
loose onto this entire city, and have them turn it into a frozen
wasteland, and it's citizens into ice statues like them." She announced
as she raised her hands up in front of her and points them directly at
the reporters, as her open palms began to glow a dark blue color. "This
report is now over!"
What soon followed was the sound of screams of fear and pain
ringing as the camera followed the blue light as it surrounded the
group, before the picture was lost completely, and the screen switches
back to the new station, as they tried to bring the picture back up and
get back into contact with the Yamato and his news crew with no luck.
"Yamato, are you still there? Can you still hear me, Yamato?!"
Hiroshi called out through the microphone headpiece at his ear, as he
tried to get an answer from the reporter only to receive nothing but
static. After a few seconds of nothing but silence on the other end, he
finally gave up and turned back around to face the camera with a gloomy
expression as he spoke, "All of you heard it here folks. Star Dreamer if
you are out there listening to this broadcast, the Sailor Senshi
*and* Tokyo needs your help once more. Please help
us!"
"Damn it," Serena snapped as she glared at the TV set, as she
snatched up the remote control and switched it off, and turned to face
the others, and sees the matching expressions on their faces.
"I think they would have started this attack even if you hadn't
made your appearance as Sailor Star Dreamer last night, Serena," Taiki
said reassuringly as he walked over towards her.
"Well from the way Frostbite put it," Serena said, her face
turning red, "it's almost sounds like she's trying to put the blame for
their attack today solely on me so that *I* get in trouble
around here." 
"I think the only reason they've made this ultimatum is because
you alone hurt that Raven character last night." Seiya said, anger
filling his eyes at the thought of what was going on. "And made that
announcement to lure you out."
"Look, are we going to continue yakking about this, or are we
going out there to help them?" Yaten demanded as he pulled out his
henshin headset, and put it on. "If we're going to start making
appearances as the Sailor Starlights in this city, we *do*
have a reputation to keep, right?"
"Right!" Serena and Taiki chorused.
"Of course we're going," Seiya said, grinning a bit as he pulled
out his own headset. "And here I thought that our last couple of months
on Earth were going to be boring." He said sarcastically as he grinned a
bit, making as he and the others made their way towards the front door,
"I want to meet up with the senshi of this planet, and
*personally* have a little talk with Uranus and
Neptune."
"Hey wait up you guys, I want to come to," Hera exclaimed as she
stood up and started to go after the others.
"Stay here, Hera, we might not need your help tonight," Serena
said stopping near the door, with one hand resting on the frame, as she
half turned around to look at the remaining two in the room.
"Why not?!" Hera demanded as she rested her hands on her hips and
frowned at Serena.
"One thing is your cooking." Serena said as she stared back at
Hera for a moment, meeting the other girls violet eyed gaze head on,
before turning her gaze towards Sammy, giving him a teasing grin,
"Second, somebody's got to watch Sammy to make sure he stays out of
trouble *and* out of the ice cream until we all get
back."
"Hey, I don't need a babysitter!! Especially not with Hera in
charge..." Sammy cried out indignantly as he glared at his sister, just
as Hera whacked him over the head with her hand. "OW! What did you do
*that* for, Hera?!!"
"Your not a bed of roses either, brat." Hera snapped as she glared
down at the younger boy, and crossed her arms over her chest.
"Fine, don't call it babysitting then," Serena called back just as
the door was about to close behind her, "You can just keep Hera company
until we get back, Sammy. It shouldn't take too long anyways." She
called back as the door shut behind with a loud click before either one
could reply.

<hr>

~Meanwhile, back at the battle scene~

The Icejin were made completely of ice, with long sharp claws for
hands and feet, long, sharp spikes stuck out of their arms and backs,
two curved horns perched on their forheads, as their glowing red and
gold eyes glared menacingly at their opponents, letting out loud
earsplitting wailing laughter as they attacked with both physical and
ice attacks, against the Sailor Senshi.
The Sailor Senshi and the generals were doing badly against Puck
and Frostbites forces, as their combined attacks took out most of the
ice monsters, only to watch helplessly as more immediately replace the
ones that were destroyed, as their own numbers began to dwindle down.
With the late arrival of Sailors Neptune, Uranus, Mercury, Jupiter and
Venus, the odds in the battle had risen into their favor.
"Damn!" Uranus cursed as she launched another attack towards
another Icejin and watched as it was instantly vaporized, "These things
are harder to beat than the Torok's. Mercury, hasn't your computer found
a way to beat them *yet*?!" she demanded as she turned her
attention towards the blue haired senshi.
"It's still searching for any sign of a weakness in the Icejin, so
it may still take awhile," Mercury said, as she glanced up at the other
Sailor Senshi.
"Is there *anything* that you *can*
tell us that could help?" a battered Sailor Mars demanded in a hopeful
voice, as she glanced at Sailor Mercury for her answer.
"All the Mercury computer can tell me is that the power source
that's keeping the Icejin going is that the power is coming from
*both* Puck and Frostbite." Mercury said, becoming
thoughtful for a moment as she accessed the situation, before speaking
once more, "Frostbite's attacks are based solely on ice and other water
based elements, so my guess is that Puck must be supplying Frostbite
with the necessary power she needs to keep producing the Icejin. So
maybe if we take out one of *them*, this battle could be
over sooner."
"Easier said than done, Mercury," Mars snapped as she glanced back
towards the battle, "There's no one close enough to get an attack in at
them, and with the way the Icejin keep attacking, we may still not get
the chance to attack."
Mercury only silently shook her head in response as she glanced
once more at the computer screen to look at the new readouts showing up
on the screen.
"What we need is help," Mercury said softly as she glanced around
at the others, taking in the injured state of some of her companions,
including the generals. "If only we had a way to contact Star Dreamer,
maybe we could talk her into coming back and-"
"We don't need the help of an outsider!" Uranus snapped as she
glared daggers at Mercury, causing the other girl to involuntarily
flinch under the older girls gaze. "We shouldn't put our full trust into
her. We don't know anything about her, not to mention the fact she's not
even from this galaxy."
"Back off Uranus," Jupiter cut in as she glanced back at the
others, after launching an attack at the oncoming Icejin, "No matter how
much you Outers may be against Dreamer being here on Earth," she started
eyes narrowing in anger, "if it wasn't for Star Dreamer, the rest of us
probably would have been dead by the time you guys arrived at the battle
yesterday. She didn't *have* to come help us, but she did.
As far as I'm concerned she's okay in my book."
"Ladies, look," Tuxedo Mask interrupted as he made his way towards
the girls, the generals behind him, "Unless you girls have forgotten
already, we don't have the time for all of you to start arguing about
this later, if we *have* a later, that is."
Just then one of the Icejin broke through the line of attacks
being sent out, and charged the group of heroes, wailing maniacally, as
it got ready to launch an attack of it's own, planning to take out a few
of the senshi itself before it could be destroyed like it's comrades
when... 
"STAR SOLAR SCREAM!!!"
A blast of energy came out of nowhere striking the Icejin head,
on, completely vaporizing it before it even reached the group, causing
everyone to relax, before looking around for the source of the attack's
origin.
_So she decided to come help us again after all,_ Uranus
thought silently to herself as she glanced around the area, until her
eyes finally spot Star Dreamer, as she appeared out of the shadows of a
nearby alley.

<hr>

"Hold it right there!" Star Dreamer shouted out, once everyone
there had finally noticed her presence. "I won't stand for the cruelties
and injustice being done here tonight, and I'm here to stop it."
"Well look who's here, Puck," Frostbite said with a slight smirk
on her lips, as she faced Sailor Star Dreamer, "So the mysterious new
Sailor senshi has finally decided to make her appearance before us. I
almost thought that you would have chickened out."
"Starlight's don't '*chicken* out'," Star Dreamer
said sarcastically, as her eyes narrowed in anger at the elemental, "I
didn't appreciate that announcement you made on TV to me. Exactly what
are the two of you doing here?" Star Dreamer demanded as she glared at
the two villains with distaste evident in her voice. 
"So you *did* see my little announcement on the
news," Frostbite said, sounding pleased, as she touched down a few feet
away from Dreamer, "Your showing yourself now, saves us the trouble of
having to hunt you down and killing you ourselves," she said with a
confident.
"We're here for some payback for what you did to Raven last night,
Star Dreamer," Puck said, as he landed on the ground, and sneers at her,
"No one messes with one of our own and lives." 
"Then why didn't Raven come here himself?" Star Dreamer asked, as
she placed her hands on her hips, to scowl at the them, "Why isn't he
trying to avenge himself, instead of sending *you* guys in
his place??"
"Because he's in hot water with our queen right now thanks to you,
and is confined to our realm for the time being," Frostbite said with
scowl on her features, "so she gave us his job. We thought that we
should kill two birds with one stone, and get rid of all of the senshi
at once."
"I think you Fey people have nothing better to do than cause
trouble and harm to innocent bystanders, like those reporters you
attacked, just to make a point" Dreamer exclaimed, glaring at the
duo.
"We've heard a lot about you from our comrade Raven," Puck said as
he eyed her up and down, before giving her a dismissive look, and moved
back to Frostbite's side, "You're the first one of these girls to
actually do damage to one of our kind, and I'm quite impressed."
"Thank you. It comes with the job," Star Dreamer said as she gave
the duo a mock bow, as she stood back up, expression not changing, "Now
then are you guys going to leave peacefully or do you want to leave the
same way that Raven did last night?"
"Don't make us laugh," Frostbite snapped as her ice blue eyes
turned even more frosty as they settled on Star Dreamer in anger,
"Unlike that weakling Raven, the two of *us* have nothing
to worry about the likes of you." She said contemptuously as she snapped
her fingers as over twenty or more Icejin appeared 10 feet away from
where Star Dreamer stood. "Icejin, get her!"
Immediately the group of monsters charged straight at Star
Dreamer, ready for battle, as Star Dreamer simply stood there and waited
for the attack to come, not making any move to avoid it.
All of the senshi and generals could do was watch in shock as the
Icejin almost reached Star Dreamer and still she didn't do anything to
protect herself from the incoming assault, but were too busy with their
own opponents to do anything to help.
"Star Dreamer get the hell out of the way!" Mars shouted out a
warning as she and the others watched as the other girl didn't make any
move to either stop or avoid the oncoming attack.
Then, to everyone's complete surprise, as the air around them was
broken by the sound of three unfamiliar voices shouting out their
attacks, as the Icejin were suddenly engulfed in blinding light.
"STAR SENSITIVE INFERNO!!"
"STAR GENTLE UTERUS!!"
"STAR SERIOUS LASER!!"
As the light cleared, everyone's eyes nearly popped out of their
sockets as they saw that nearly all of the Icejin had been completely
vaporized by the unknown attacks, and as they witnessed three new
figures dressed in black leather leap down from a nearby rooftop to land
next to Star Dreamer. Everyone's eyes widened even further as they
realized that the three newcomers were dressed exactly like Star
Dreamer.
"Cutting it in a little close aren't we, Dreamer?" the senshi with
black hair commented as she gave Star Dreamer a reprimanding look.
"Yeah, what were you trying to pull?" the one with silver hair
demanded as she put her hands on her hips.
Dreamer only shrugged her shoulders, looking a bit sheepish as she
answered, "I knew you guys would have done something to stop them before
they reached me, so I let them come."
"What the heck?!" Frostbite exclaimed in surprise as three attacks
of energy came out of nowhere and struck one of the groups of ice
monsters, completely wiping them out in one blast.
"No way," Puck muttered under his breath as he looked at the four
leather clad girls before him in disbelief.
Glancing back at Star Dreamer, she see's that the leather clad
senshi was smiling slightly, as three figures dressed similarly as Star
Dreamer were now standing side by side with Dreamer. "How... Who the
hell are you three?!"
"*Four* of them?!" the sailor senshi and generals
said out loud as they stared at the four newcomers, in shock and
disbelief.
"Now, what made you so sure I would have come here by myself
tonight?" Star Dreamer said smugly, as she looked at her companions.
"I'd say that introductions needed."
"Right," the other Starlights chorused.
"Penetrating the Darkness at night... The air of freedom breaks
through... We are the four sacred shooting stars of the new millennium.
We are..."
"Sailor Star Dreamer!"
"Sailor Star Fighter!"
"Sailor Star Healer!"
"Sailor Star Maker!"
"Sailor Starlight's, Stage on!"

<center>To Be Continued�</center>

Author's Notes: 
Hey everyone. I hope that you all like the newest chapter to A
Brand New Destiny. Tell me what you think.
Sorry everyone for taking so long to update A Brand New Destiny.
I've been busy with both real life, and I've had a major case of
Writer's Block for the last couple of months, because I couldn't decide
to how Chapter 4 would go.
The main reason that I had writers block is because I also have a
chapter 5 of BNEWD *almost* ready to come out soon too and
I was working on that before I did Chapter 4. Chapter 5
*would* have been chapter 4 *only* if I had
ended Chapter 3 differently than I did. Which then left me with a
*mega* case of writers block for what to put for
the new Chapter 4...
But I've made up for the long waits now haven't I, with an even
longer chapter? Even *I* was surprised at how long it got
during all this time. ^_~v 
Anyways... Now I can finally get back to work on my other stories,
though I might work on chapter 5 in too. ^_^ What do you all think of
the long awaited chapter 4 of A Brand New Destiny? Do you guys love it?
Hate it? What?
January 11, 2002 � Just a mini update. *sighs* I
*finally* noticed all of these mistakes, where some of the
paragraphs were never finished and so on, that I made when I first wrote
this chapter 3 months ago, and just now got around to fixing them on
Friday night. I just hope that I managed to get them all now. 
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Date Started: March 10, 2001 
Date Finished: October 3, 2001 
Date Updated: January 12, 2002