Ari WaSPG0LD@aol.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- SAILOR MOON 2050 Disclaimers: You know who Sailor Moon belongs too. =====CHAPTER 5: THE RETURN OF SAILOR MARS===== BERGER HOUSE A MOMENT LATER Four columns of light brought the four remaining Sailors back to Earth. Now that Vicki had been disposed, Robert, Tom, Nina, and Jessica were the only ones left to defend the universe. For now. After his victory over the original Sailor Mars, Robert had ta- ken on the responsibility of finding a suitable replacement for her. But the question was...who? "Any suggestions?" Robert asked. The other three looked at each other, puzzled. Obviously, no one had anyone in mind. "Fair e- nough, I'll look myself." "How will you know who can be the next Sailor Mars?" Nina asked. "When I find her, I find her. Or him. Raye will give me the signal. Besides, we should be alright until we find a replacement." "We've only got four Sailors," Tom said, "and we can't totally rely on Studeman. What happens when we get attacked?" "We'll handle it. Enough said." THE NEXT DAY AT SCHOOL Robert shut the door to his locker and put his back up against it. Of course, the lockers were so small and narrow that he was lean- ing on three lockers. These past few days have been quite stressful for him. He let all of the events sink in some more. He was thinking so hard that he didn't notice the girl saying 'Excuse me' over and over to him. "Huh? Oh..." He looked to see a short girl, with very dark brown - almost black - hair, brown eyes, and a bright smile looking back at him. "Sorry, Lori." He moved out of her way. "That's alright!" she said, smiling. "So what're you up to?" "Nothing major." He stared out into the hallway, and saw a fa- miliar face. "Here comes your boyfriend." Lori grumbled. The short, bald kid she was refering to was her ex-boyfriend, Mick. He walked over to the two. "Wzup Berger? Hi, Lo- ri!" He put his arms around her waist. "Ugh! Get off me!" she nearly shouted, forcing his hands off of her. Defeated, he turned to Rob. "Wzup buddy?! How ya doin'?" "If you'll excuse me," Robert said, "we were trying to have a private conversation here, so-" "I can't believe you!" Mick said to Lori. "First you dump me, now you're going out with MY BEST FRIEND?!?" "Uh, I'm not your best friend, Mickey..." "You know what," he started to stutter. "Just...just...don't talk to me anymore, okay?!" He walked away from the two in disgust. "Idiot," they both said. They turned to each other when Lori spoke up. "So what're you doing after school?" TEMPLE OF THE PLANETS MEANWHILE "Whatcha up to, Serena?" Saint Raye asked, walking up to Sere- na. She had been watching Robert through the Earthscope. "Eh," she started, "just checking up on Rob. Why?" "How is he coming with his search?" She paused. "See for yourself." They looked into the Earth- scope and saw Robert talking to another girl. Then, Raye got a strange feeling. "What?" "That girl..." she started, "I'm picking up a wierd vibe from her." She stared her some more. "She's definitely the one; She's gon- na be my Sailor Mars." She walked quickly across the temple with a smile on her face. "Where are you going?" Serena asked. "You'll see...." BACK AT SCHOOL "Well, aside from wrestling practice, and sleeping off the ex- haustion, nothing!" He scratched the back of his head. "If I'm not *completely* exhausted, I'll give you a call, OK?" "Sure." She smiled, and walked away. Meanwhile, Robert started laughing, turned around, and repeat- edly banged his head into his locker. "What is WRONG with me?!" He dropped his arms at his side...when he realized something was missing. "What the-!" He dug around, and realized the Mars transformation pen was missing. {It's gone!} he thought. {What happened to it?!} Robert looked around panicky, and a gold glint caught his eye. He looked in- side Lori's locker, and saw the pen sitting there with a note tied to it. "Oh boy..." WRESTLING PRACTICE AFTER SCHOOL It was a clean, crisp 8? F outside at 2:30 that day. Perfect weather for running two miles outside on the track. Being the only heavyweight on the team, it was common for him to trail behind the rest of the team. The coach saw him falling behind as most of the other teammates finished. "Are you done there, Berger?" the coach asked. Rob was going to answer. Rob wanted to answer. But he froze in place when he saw a familiar figure floating above the group. His manaical laughter filled the area. It was Troutman *and* Smithman. "Your energy is OURS!" they shouted before started to drain en- ergy. Since they were both draining at the same rate, each of the 35 teammates lost twice as much energy if only one of them was draining them. They collapsed almost instantly. Robert rushed over to the rest of them. "What have you done to them?" he asked. "The same thing we're about to do to you," Smithman said. He raised his hand at Robert, and a ball of energy shot from his open palm. "Like that, Sailor Moon?!" "Not as much as you'll like this! MOON CRYSTAL POWER!!!" The only problem was that Rob wasn't wearing his watch, which activated his powers. He realized this too late. "Uh-oh..." Robert panicked and ran towards the school, dodging blast after blast from the two Negaverse generals. "Ahh, let him go," Smithman said. "He can't do a thing to us." "I guess you're right," Troutman said. They looked at the pile of wrestlers. "Now, let's see what we can do with this lively bunch here...." As Robert fumbled with the lock on his wrestling locker, he could only imagine what horrible things that were being done to his teammates. He got the door open...now where is it? He dug around in his pants pockets. A-ha! the watch! But first, his beeper. He sent out an all-call: "Guys, you gotta get down to the school immediately! We're under attack!" Now for the watch. "Let's try that again, shall we? MOON CRYSTAL POWER!" "Arise, Frostino!" Troutman must have used up more than half the team making his negaverse snowman creature, Frostino; adequately enough, it looked like a giant snowman with coal shaped into a really mean, angry face. "Golem, come forward!" The other half was used by Smithman to conjure up a giant man of stone named Golem. "They're beautiful, aren't they?" Troutman said. "Beautiful," Smithman answered, smiling. "So what say we should do with them?" "Nothing! That's what!" The four turned around to find Sailor Moon and his crew. "You're about to get put on ice, pal! I am Sailor Moon!" "Sailor Venus!" "Sailor Mercury!" "Sailor Jupiter!" "WE'RE TEAM SAILOR!!!" Normally a scene like this would've send the two Negaverse gen- erals into a panic. But this time, it was different. Troutman espe- cially kept cool. "Seriously, Sailor Moon," he started, "what chance do you think you have?" "What chance *do* they have?" Smithman asks. "Shut up!" To Sailor Moon: "It's your four...against my four. You can't win." All of a sudden, a thin, white dart hit the other three right in the chest. Troutman looked up and saw Studeman floating overhead. "Okay, five against four." "It seems as if you two are having fun, aren't you?" Studeman asked. "We were...until YOU showed up!" Smithman said. "Face it Sai- lor Moron! You're NOTHING without Sailor Mars." With that, he started to laugh manicly. ALBACK HOUSE MEANWHILE Lori returned home from school later than usual. She was quite tired, and didn't feel like doing homework. But she unpakced her book- bag - stockpiled with homework - none the less. But among the text- books she noticed something...different. "What's this?" she said, pulling out a strange pen, of sorts, bearing the symbol of Mars on it. She picked up the note. It said: "You Are the Chosen One." "The chosen one? What?" But before she could say anything else, the pen emitted a strange light. Soon, Lori and the entire room were engulfed in it. She let out a scream, and she disappeared. TEMPLE OF THE PLANETS A MOMENT LATER A pillar of light appeared in the middle of the temple floor, and a young woman's silhouette could been seen floating gently down on- to the floor. When the light receded, Lori found herself standing in the mid- dle of a beautiful palace, light pouring in from the stained glass win- downs. The gold designs in the floor gleamed in the light. Several statues of beautiful women - and a few handsome men - stood alongside the outer walls. Only some background music was heard at first. "Where am I?" Lori asked. She looked around the room at the statues, when all of a sudden, one started to glow brightly. The glow stopped, and a beautiful woman with purple eyes and long, black hair. "Welcome, Lori," the woman said. "I've been waiting for you. Surprised to be here?" "Sh-should I be?" Lori asked. "I'm not surprised. Here, let me introduce myself." She bowed forward slightly, her hand across her chest. "I am Saint Raye, former Sailor Scout of the planet Mars." "What do you mean?" "Originally, there were five Sailors; Robert, of the Moon, Tom, from Venus, Nina, hailing from Jupiter, Jessica, from Mercury, and a fifth, whom isn't with us anymore." "Those...they're all friends of mine." "Yes. After original Mars' departure, we were short on manpo- wer, if you will. And we want you to be our new Sailor Mars. Do you feel you're up to it?" She thought for a while. If it were someone else, she would've said No. But the fact that a few of her friends were Sailors motivated her into acception. "I will be Sailor Mars." "Great. Now, your friends are in deep trouble as we speak, Lo- ri. You must go to them now!" "How do I do that?" "Simply transform, and you will be sent right to the battle. Transform with the phrase 'Mars Power.'" She held the Mars pen up nervously. "M-mars power." "No no no no! Scream it out! With *feeling*!" Lori tried again. "MARS POWER!!!" All of a sudden, the magic fires spun around her, and when they cleared, Sailor Mars was standing before her guardian saint. Sailor Mars was back. BACK ON EARTH "Well Sailors, seems as if you've been left out in the cold, so the saying goes." Troutman was, of course, refering to the block of ice that Frostina had imprisoned the Sailors plus Studeman in. After Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus put away Golem, it was the least she could do. "Any last words," Frostina said, "before I put you away for good?" "I can think of three: Mars fire...IGNITE!!!" A ball of fire spiraled into Frostina, causing her to let out a loud scream. The oth- ers looked over to where the fire came from. "Hello boys!" Sailor Mars shouted. "I'm baaaaack!" Oh no, Troutman thought. Her first task was to unfreeze the others. They didn't look too tired, though. "Hi Rob!" she said. "Lori?" She nodded. "Let's put this thing on ice!" Rob took off his bandanna, which morphed into a boomerang. "Mars fire...IGNITE!!!" "Moon boomerang...MAGIC!!!" The boomerang glowed brightly, and Lori's fire combined with it, lighting the 'rang on fire. It sailed straight into Frostina, melting her in an instant. "NOOOOOOO!!!" she yelled before turning into a puddle. Trout- man and Smithman didn't bother to stay. Neither did Studeman. The others rushed over to Lori. "Lori!" "Are you alright?" Tom asked. "Where'd you come from?" Jessica asked. "You were awesome!" Nina said. Lori was swamped with questions. But there'll be plenty of time for filling in later. =====TO BE CONTINUED=====