Episode 3: The New Girl *** Amythite sat sulking in her room. Her eyes were almost closed, she seemed to be sleeping. But she tended to think best this way. The dark walls and draperies of her room blurred in her vision, running together like water over wet paint. "Who is this girl?" she muttered. "A Sailor Senshi? But she can?t be, they?re all on Jadeite?s turf." She frowned. They would be a nuisance. She frowned again as she heard a deep chime, a summons. Metallia. "Oh, wonderful," Amythite growled to herself. "This can?t be good." She tromped off to the center room, to see her mistress. "Mistress," Amythite said, kneeling. "What is your bidding?" "Amythite," Metallia returned. "You are struggling." Amythite started nervously. "No, mistress, I?ve only just discovered this threat. She claims to be a Sailor Senshi, but that is not possible." "I don?t care what she is, Amythite," Metallia growled. "Take care of her. Or would you rather I demoted you to one of Beryl?s Generals?" Amythite stiffened. "No, mistress. I hear and obey." Nervous and angry, she stood and stalked out of the room, slipping into a portal only moments later. She reappeared moments later in the Lunar Valley High School 1st hour math class. She had chosen a good base of operations. Clearly Sailor FlowerPower must go this school, she would be here. Amythite, or rather Ms. Amy Stone, sat at her desk and started planning an attack with a purpose. The previous attacks had been random. "Maybe that?s what I?m doing wrong," Amythite murmured to herself. "I need a concrete plan, a system. Metallia wants energy, so I need to start with that." She turned to her computer, inconspicuous to everyone in the school, and began typing. But to Amythite, she could feel and hear the Dark Energy in the altered machine. Her first plan was coming into being. *** I walked glumly into first hour. Ms. Amy was busy, typing on her computer. No one else was there yet. I didn?t care that much, I was bummed. It was the second week of school. The most boring week of the year. Nothing had started yet, but the first week was over! Pure torture. Well, except for that little thing with being a Sailor Senshi, that was ok. And Tristan, after all. I?d been making friends with some of the new kids. Sarah Simms, the teen singer, had picked me out of a schoolful of kids to hang out with! That was way past cool. I?d also become friends with a shy little girl, also new, named Merlyn Beier. She was too cute, tiny, with light blonde hair and blue eyes. She reminded me of someone, but I couldn?t put my finger on it. But other than that, things were almost normal. There?d only been one more attack since I?d discovered Sailor Stardance, and she hadn?t been there. I thought it was odd. So far, the attacks seemed to have no purpose, no direction. I wondered what exactly was going on. *** Amythite, in disguise as a teacher, kept working. Her plan was this: If she was going to destroy Sailor FlowerPower, she was going to need energy. Obviously Beryl and her Generals weren?t doing so well. Their job was to supply energy, until a means could be found to recover the Ginzuishou. Amythite was out to gather subjects for Metallia?s use, as youma and daemons. But with the appearance of the Sailor Senshi, both sides were having trouble. Jadeite was in the process of gathering energy when Sailor Moon appeared. Now he had more trouble, two more Sailors, Mercury and Mars. And Amythite now had two, Sailors FlowerPower and Stardance. So Amythite would gather her own energy, until she could destroy Sailor FlowerPower. And she would start getting it from the school. *** "Merlyn!" I called, hurrying up the hall after the blonde-haired girl. She turned at the sound. "Oh, Sunny!" she exclaimed. Are you late for lunch too?" "Sure am. Mr. A gave us another lecture-" I opened my mouth wide, deliberately over-pronouncing each word, "on ?pro-noun-cia-tion? and ?vo-wel place-ment.?" I laughed. "I feel like a wide-mouth frog!" Merlyn giggled. "I can imagine. I had a step to get right, and Ms. Sherri wouldn?t let me go until I did. So." She rolled her eyes, but smiled. I nodded. "Yup, teachers are tough." I sighed in mock exasperation. "They just don?t understand our need for a full lunch period." We both giggled. "Where?s Amberle?" she asked, looking around. "Probably there already, eating," I answered. "Let?s go!" And we raced off toward the cafeteria. *** Amythite smiled slyly from her invisible watching place over the cafeteria. Her new plan was beginning to take effect, by the actions of the teenagers. All those who had eaten her food, infused with Dark Power, were now beginning to act sluggish and sleepy. Soon they would be discovered, evidently passed out from food poisoning. But in all reality, their energy would have been taken from their bodies, and put to use as Dark Energy. She smirked and disappeared, off to gather the soon to come energy. *** Merlyn and I entered the cafeteria area, and began heading to the lunch line. I blinked and stopped after a few steps; I was getting strange vibes from everyone in the room. Merlyn stopped beside me, an odd look on her face as well. We suddenly locked eyes, and I got the strangest feeling of all. Suddenly, the doors started slamming shut on the large room. I looked around wildly, my heart falling to my knees. People started falling where they stood or sat, keeling over as if they?d just been sucked dry of all energy. I gasped, recognizing this. It was the Dark Kingdom! Sickly green light began gathering at the center of the room and coalesced into a disgusting misshapen form wearing a kitchen apron and holding a black, jeweled frying pan. It grinned in perverse pleasure, and sent out streams of green light that touched each of the collapsed students. The glow of free energy being taken away lit the room, and I gasped in shock. I had to do something! Merlyn stared at the creature, shocked. The energy drain hadn?t affected her, I noticed, finally understanding. Whoever had done this had poisoned the school food, and so their energy could be drained. But with Merlyn on my hands, I couldn?t transform. I watched in agony as my classmates were slowly drained of their precious life energy. I thought of Amberle, Tristan, and Sara. I couldn?t let them go, even if it cost me my identity! I glared up at the energy-stealing monster. "Stop it!" I shouted, furious. It looked over, surprised. "I?m putting a stop to this right now!" I snatched the Flower Locket off my shirt and raised it high. "Flower Prism Power, -Make Up!-" I could feel Merlyn?s shock as I spun into my Sailor uniform. But I also began feeling a strange yet similar power coming from her. I wondered... But then I was Sailor FlowerPower, and into action! I stood and shouted up at the creature. "Alright you slimy energy-stealing monster! Prepare to pay!" I pointed up at it. "You?ve hurt my friends, taken away their precious life, and for that you?re going to suffer! I?m the pretty soldier Sailor FlowerPower, and in the name of Thalassa, satellite of Neptune, I?ll punish you!" "Not alone you won?t!" a voice shouted behind me. I turned, shocked, to see Merlyn, angry and determined looking, holding a pink pen. She raised the pen high... "Dance Power, -Make Up!-" And before my eyes, my new friend transformed into my new ally of only a few days ago, Sailor Stardance. I watched in shock, disbelieving. But then she stood before me, my pink and blue Sailor Senshi companion. I opened my mouth to speak and nothing came out. Merlyn, er, Sailor Stardance grinned. "Hey, we?ve got work to do, huh?" She smiled, pointing up at the monster. I came out of my daze and grinned. "Sure do!" I nodded firmly. "Let?s go!" We turned together to face the monster, hands on hips, back to back. "I?m not letting you get away with it either! In the name of Titania, satellite of Uranus, I?ll punish you! I'm Sailor Stardance!" "We are the Satellite Senshi, warriors of peace and love!" we shouted together. "In the name of the Satellites, you?re punished!" I nodded and we split, to separate sides of the room. I circled the monster carefully, watching. It?s eyes followed me, but Sailor Stardance was out of it?s range of vision. But I could see her. I nodded silently. "Starlight Step!" she cried and cast the resulting pink beam in the direction of the creature, hitting full force in it?s back. The monster roared in pain and tumbled to the floor. "Yes!" she cheered. "Good work!" I shouted. "Now it?s my turn! Flower Tiara-" I clasped my tiara in one hand, feeling the change to the warm, thin disc- "Action!" It flew to the crippled monster, and in seconds disintegrated it to nothing. I ran to Sailor Stardance and we high-fived. "We did it!" she shouted, jubilant. I smiled. "We sure did." I suddenly hugged my friend and fellow Senshi. She looked surprised for a moment, then hugged me back. I thought for a moment I saw tears shimmering in her blue eyes. "Together," she said quietly. Then we both laughed. *** The masked, caped man peered through a window into the cafeteria room. He smiled. "Secrets revealed, eh Sunny?" he thought. "Well then, I guess I have some work out of character to do as well then." The blue-silver mask and caped tuxedo disappeared, and all that was left was a teenage boy in jeans and a tee-shirt. He pushed his sandy blonde hair back from his blue eyes and turned to walk off. But right before he did, he turned back to the door and left a blue rose before it. Then, Tristan Andres walked off, humming quietly to himself. *** Ep. 3 - http://eternal.dreamhost.com/fanfics/ss3.txt Beverly "Usagi" Alliss - beverly@magicalgirls.net Merlyn "Ami" Baker - yumesan@yahoo.com First Written, 1998. Recent Editing, May 2000. Tsuki no Yume http://eternal.dreamhost.com/fanfics/