Title: From Thy Kingdoms Come - Chapter 4 Author: Aquamarine Angel Edited by: Crescent Moon E-mail Address: aquamarineangel@yahoo.com Web Address: http:www.geocities.com/universe_guardians Rated: PG _________________________________________________________________________ "Where do you think you're going? No one escapes from me!!" an evil voice growled out, from behind them. Jon wasn't sure he wanted to find out who... or what was behind them. That voice had sounded very... strange. It wasn't even the evil undertone that told him to run. It was the unnatural hissing sound that accompanied the words. Jon didn't get much of a chance to decide weather or not to turn around. Josie chose for him. She ran like a frightened rabbit. Jon followed close behind her. Then, out of nowhere several snakes appeared before them, blocking their path. It was hard to tell whether or not the snakes were poisonous. However, the way the way that the snakes were showing off their teeth, and hissing like crazy, made their point quite clear. Jon and Josie were not going to be allowed to leave going in that direction. They both slowly turned around. They were hesitant to turn their backs on the snakes, but they needed to find out what they were dealing with. They both knew that the odd snake behavior had something to do with the person/thing that was currently cackling with laughter behind them. Or you could say hissing. What they saw wasn't pleasant. The creature was obviously female. She had green and blue, scaly skin. Her hair was a blob of purple fizz. The most frightening thing about this monster was that it was half serpent and half human. It had arms and a face like any human, but below what could be considered the waist, was a snake like body. Both of them were terrified. The fear welled up inside them until they felt that they would explode. Josie screamed. Jon stood frozen like a statue. Luckily for Jon, Josie still had her wits about her. After having a good scream, she managed to find a piece of glass the size of a knife. The whole in the glass wall where the piece of glass must have been, was how some of the snakes must have escaped. As a matter of fact, still more snakes were getting loose. Josie hated snakes, more than anything in the would. She hated them even more that spiders, and she had a severe case of arachnid phobia. But somehow, in her fear, she found the strength to face her fear and go for the potential weapon. In a flash she dove for the glass. Then, like a bullet, she was running for the creature. Before she even knew what she was doing, she was stabbing the creature. By the time Jon had discovered what was going on, his sister had injured the creature to the point where it was lying on the floor unconscious. Blood was all over... Except it wasn't really blood. It was more like green ooze. Josie. She was standing above the creature, staring down in horror. Tears were streaming down her face in a steady river. Jon ran over to her and put his arms around her comfortingly. Then he started to lead her out of the room-o-snakes. But before they managed to get past the snakes that had originally prevented them from running from the creature, loud yells of pain, and anger rang out through the museum. The sounds appeared to be coming from room number 3. Jon and Josie looked at each other, and nodded. Call it twin telepathy, but they both knew the choice that they had to make. They could run out the door... or they could go find out what all the yelling was about. They decided to find out what the yelling was about. They figured that whatever happened, it couldn't possibly be as bad as what had just happened. It didn't cross their minds that curiosity killed the cat. As they crossed over to the entrance to the third room, they heard several crashes and explosions. They began to get a bit nervous about going into that room, but they really didn't want to stay with the snakes. They were no longer under whatever spell the serpent being had placed on them, but they were still a potential danger. And Josie was still afraid of snakes. They stopped just in front of the open entrance. What they saw shocked them. A young woman, who resembled the woman at the ticket desk, was fighting against an extremely evil looking man. The young woman was wearing a very strange outfit. It looked a little like something the people in the navy would wear. The "sailor suit" consisted of a black skirt, collar, and choker, with a dark-purple bow on the back of the uniform right were the skirt met the top shirt and right below the collar. The woman had matching knee boots. She had a gold tiara with a black jewel on her forehead. She carried a staff in her gloved hands that resembled a key. The strangest thing about her was that she was throwing orbs of power at the man, from her staff. The man was just as strange. He had black hair, and brown eyes flaked with red. He was wearing a black uniform with trim. He was throwing red and black globs of energy right back at the "sailor" It seemed to be an even fight, but the sailor appeared to be tiring fast. With one glance, the twins had decided to help her. She was quite obviously the good guy... er girl. They weren't capable of commanding great orbs of power so they decided to move directly to plan b. They would distract the man. "I'll try to pick up one of those snakes, okay Josie? Then you can do something drastic, when I give the cue. Draw attention far away from me. Then I'll toss the snake at that guy. I'm pretty sure he'll find himself to distracted to attack the sailor. That'll give her an opening," Jon planned. As soon as he finished talking he began searching for a snake that he recognized as NOT being poisonous. Josie wanted to turn this plan away, but she couldn't think of anything better. She would just have to go along with it. After a few seconds, Jon found a snake he knew about, and Josie was given the signal. She decided to do something that would distract the man for sure. She ran into the room screaming, right behind the man. The man looked up in surprise. He really hadn't been expecting a screaming girl to run behind him. Jon used this opportunity to throw the snake on top of him. Jon's assumption turned out to be correct. The evil person jumped back in surprise, and cried out when he saw the snake hissing crazily at him. The sailor immediately saw what Jon and Josie were trying to do and jumped into action. "DEAD SCREAM!" the sailor shouted at the top of her lungs. Power was released from her staff and the man was seriously injured. He stumbled to his feet. He was bleeding and terrible bruised, but he managed to stand and speak. "You lucked out again, this time Lady Pluto. Don't expect it to happen again. I'll be ready for you next time," he muttered hoarsely. Then with a wave of his hand, he teleported back to where he came from. Lady Pluto, the twins figured that this was her name, turned to the both of them once the man was gone, and beckoned them to come closer. They complied to her request. She smiled at them. "Nice job, and quick thinking! I'm very proud of you, both. I have absolutely no doubt that the two of you are the twins my mission was to find. Your bravery reflects the inner strength of those born to the First House of Earth," she said, eyes shinning happily. Her praise was welcomed, but the rest of what she had said made no sense what-so-ever to them. "Ah... What are you talking about? Who was that guy? What is going on?" Josie demanded to know. "That was one of the generals of doom. One of the strongest beings in this universe. As for the rest," Lady Pluto pulled out a small silver ring with the symbol of the earth engraved repeatedly around it, and a small silver dagger, with a blue sheath, and the symbol of earth carved on the blade. "Josephine, take this ring, put it on, hold your hand up in the air and call out 'Terra Elemental Power'. Jonathan, take this dagger, point the blade straight into the air, and call out 'Earth Elemental Power'. Once you do this, things shall become clear to you." Jon and Josie were very doubtful about this, but they had nothing to lose. Besides, how had this person known their names? They hadn't even told the person at the front desk their names... This last thought made a few things click into place for Josie. As she and her brother took the items from Lady Pluto, she brought it up. "You're the lady that was at the front desk, aren't you Lady Pluto?" she said. It was more or less a statement in the form of a question. She was very sure of the answer. "Good observation. You're very sharp. Yes, I'm the lady from the front desk. My normal name is Susanna Peterson, if you would like to call me Sue when I'm in normal form, that would be great. As to that Lady Pluto part, I'm actually referred to as Sailor Pluto. Just plain Pluto for short. Now, do as I asked, and get in touch with your identities," Pluto replied. Josie couldn't help liking this Pluto person. Even if she was a little strange. Jon wasn't too surprised to hear that the woman from the front desk and Sailor Pluto were the same person. It hadn't crossed his mind until his sister brought it up, but it made perfect sense. Josie was the first to try to transform. She hesitantly held up the green wand. "TERRA ELEMENTAL POWER!" she called out. Her eyes closed up automatically. Her body felt lighter than a feather. She felt herself lift off the ground and twirl around in a series of turns. A wall of green plants and thousands of different sorts of colorful flowers appeared around her to hide what was happening from the outside world. Rose petals embraced her body and formed rose colored boots that went up past her knees, hugging her like a second skin. Oddly enough, she could tell that the tight boots would not hinder her a bit when running, fighting, or doing anything she might need to do. The rose petals then swirled up her body forming an icy pink body suite. Next a short pleated skirt, a collar, and a choker, that were a really dark shade of rose pink, appeared. A silver symbol of the earth was attached to the choker. An ice blue bow then appeared both on the back of the uniform right were the skirt met the body suite, and below the collar. A silver tiara with a jewel set in it, that was a mixture of forest green and ocean blue, appeared on her forehead. Her black hair was let loose from her braid, and was curled to perfection. After that, elbow gloves with ice green trim appeared, they failed to cover the ring however. Then she was gently lowered down to the ground. The thing that shocked her the most was the fact that these changes had happened in a mere instant. Next, it was Jon's turn. He had no doubt that he was going to undergo some major changes. He just hoped that he wasn't going to end up in a pleated skirt like his sister. Or worse, have a sex change! He had heard a little about the sailor warriors that lived in Tokyo, on the news, now that he thought about it... He had never even heard of a male sailor fighter! As Jon held up the blade of the dagger to the sky, as he had been instructed, he prayed that he'd still maintain his male gender after transforming. "EARTH ELEMENTAL POWER!" he shouted. A tidal wave of water quickly enveloped him, hiding the transformation. A bright light swirled around his feet, changing his dependable sneakers into shinny black boots that stopped just short of his knees. (They are almost exactly like the ones that Prince Endymion or the generals wear, if you've seen them.) Forrest green pants and a matching tunic covered the rest of his body. The pants were tucked inside the boots without a wrinkle, if you can imagine. A matching cape draped over his shoulders and down his back, with a sturdy silver chain that was attached securely to the rest of the outfit. Dark blue trim appeared around the edges of his tunic and pants. The tunic was tied around the waist with a matching blue sash. To top off the outfit, white gentleman's wrist gloves appeared. The final touches included the dagger being enlarged to the size of a well crafted sword, the sheath grew and was attached to the sash at the waist, and then a black symbol of the Earth showing off its glory on his forehead. The symbol did NOT disappear. A moment later, Jon found himself once again on the ground, but looking a lot different than what he had looked like a moment before. He breathed a sigh of relief to discover he wasn't female. "Congratulations. You are now official sailor soldiers. Josephine, you are now Sailor Terra. Jonathan, you are Soldier Earth. Deliver justice, and destroy evil. Those are your duties. Now, follow me. We'll take care of some unfinished business," Sailor Pluto said. She was all seriousness now. Terra and Earth, as they are called at the moment, followed Pluto into the snake room. There she stopped before the still living serphant-creature. "Mind if I ask what that is?" Earth asked. He was a little embarrassed about how he had reacted to the creature. He felt that he should have been helping his sister in stead of shaking in his Nikes (type of shoe). His sister after all was the one with the terrible fear of snakes, not him. "That is Serphantine, a creature from the doom squad. Odd that they didn't use another human, like they did last time. Well, I'll have plenty of time to ponder on this later. For now, lets get ride of this monster. Earth, would you like to do the honors?" Pluto said. No better time to start the training. "Sure. Um... what do I do?" Earth asked. This was all too new to him. "Take a deep breath, reach inside yourself, and find your power. Then say the words that come to your mind, and let the power loose," Pluto directed. Earth nodded his understanding. He then inhaled, closed his eyes, and searched deep inside himself. He was surprised to find as much power as he did. It was all condensed inside of him, waiting to be set loose. After looking a little deeper, he found the words. He opened his eyes. "EARTH TIDAL WAVE!" he cried. Out of the palm of his right hand, a great wave of water came forth. The water swept Sephantine away. Then the water pulled itself back into Soldier Earth, leaving no remains. Soldier Earth stood still, shocked. He hadn't really known what to expect. "Wow," the twins both commented at the same time. "That's right. Now, it's time to come with me. I suggest you don't look back. It'll only make things harder," Pluto told them seriously. She seemed a bit sorry to have to take them away. "What do you mean, go with you? We have to get home," Terra said, confused. "You must come with me to the gates of time. The future of the Earth and the whole Universe is on the line. You won't be going back home for a long time, I'm afraid. I'm truly sorry, to do this to you. There is no other way," Sailor Pluto explained quietly. She didn't know how they would take the news. "Well... If there's no other way... Lets go Jon, before we think about it," Terra said. She was trying to be cheerful. Earth nodded sadly at her. Sailor Pluto agreed and opened up the time stream. "After you," she said. Terra and Earth stepped through the portal, side-by-side. Pluto followed close behind them, closing the portal as she entered it. END OF CHAPTER 4