They were
going to keep in touch. The thought was on Laurine’s mind as she slid into her
desk and unzipped her backpack. As soon as she got home from school she is
going to write to Rei, actually she will also write to the other sailor
soldiers as well.
“Good
morning class,” Miss Williams greeted them as she entered the room. “We have
plenty to cover today so get out your book and notebook and open up to chapter
nine.”
Laurine
opened the book and turned the pages to chapter nine. It was on the house and
senate. She pulled out her notebook and folded it till a clean page was
exposed. She wondered what she was going to be doodling in the margins. In the
past she would often draw pictures of flowers and fish, but now she has been
drawing different pictures. She drew a picture of her music box. She also drew
a picture of Azurite, or rather a stick figure of him. She had also drew stick
figure of herself dressed in what she had thought were to be a princess dress.
That made
her think of the information they had binged on the past few days. She was a
reincarnated princess. Celeste had told them that they and the other two were
from five different planets from the Andromeda galaxy. They were the
representatives of their planets and have been given invites to the moon.
“Hello?”
A voice came from the entrance. A teenage girl with bright red hair was
standing in front of the doorway. She was holding what looked to be both a
schedule and a map of the school grounds. She had to be a new student.
“Oh,”
Miss Williams stared at the new girl. “Oh goodness I nearly forgot. Come on
inside.”
The girl
entered the class was looking around for an empty desk. She wasn’t wearing
fancy dress clothes that one might wear on their first day of school. Some
students dress like that on the first day of a new school. Obviously she wasn’t
trying too hard to make a first impression. She knew that would have been
dorky. She was wearing a bright orange shirt, red zip up jacket, blue jeans,
dark brown boots and beautiful brooch. It was perfectly round with a smaller
circle within and the border was made up of golden points. A large clip held up
a part of her hair in the back.
"Class, as you can
see we have a new student,” Miss Forrester began. "This is Kayla
Dargrian."
“Hello,” Kayla wiggled
her fingers.
“You can take a seat
behind Donna,” Miss Williams instructed.
“Here,” Donna raised her
arm.
“Thanks,” Kayla slid into
the empty seat behind Donna.
“Why don’t you tell them
a little about yourself?” Miss Williams said.
‘That’s nice,’ Laurine
thought. ‘Why don’t you just embarrass her even further?’
“Sure,” Kayla said as she
set her backpack down. Let’s see, well I just moved here from Hartford
Connecticut, but I was born in Chicago. I love to cook and sew and design, I
love pizza, and I have a pet rabbit. "
"Did they give you
any books?" Miss Williams asked.
“I got them from the
library,” Kayla said and pulled out her government textbook.
“Okay,”
Miss Williams walked back to the front of the class. “Turn to page nine. Today
we are going to start to talk about the House of Representatives and the
Senate.”
Nothing eventful, other
than having a new student happened in the first two periods of the day leading
Laurine to believe that the rest of the day was going to be just as dull.
She’ll ask Celeste if the were going to have another Lady meetings. Maybe
Celeste had remembered a bit more about their past lives and maybe she would
have new information about the fourth Lady that was about to show up and any
information on the fifth Lady.
“Laurine,” Gina ran up to
her while Laurine was at her locker.
“Wow you are really happy
to see me today,” Laurine said as she slid the books that she had used into the
locker.
“I guess I have some good
news,” Gina said. “At least it’s good for me, maybe for you if your want to be
happy for me, not that I’m going to make you be happy, all thought it would be
nice.” She was gushing, and she only gushed if she knew that a guy liked her.
“Okay who is he?” Laurine
asked.
“He?” Gina blinked. “How
did you know?”
Laurine tapped the side
of her head. “Girlish intuition.”
“Oh,” Gina said. “It’s
Garret Miller.”
"No way your going out
with Garret Miller?" Laurine asked in surprise. “Your Perseus?”
“I knew him before he was
Perseus,” Gina said.
“I know, but now you are
dating him?”
“Yeah,” Gina’s smile faded. “Why is something
wrong with him?”
“No,” Laurine shook her
head. “He’s a nice guy, great wrestlers and he is cute. I never told him, but
it was nice to see that he had grown into his body.” Laurine met Garret when
they started high school. He was a gangly kid who was bullied by some of the
athletic sophomores. Laurine and Gina first met Garret when he was shoved into
the girl’s bathroom.
“Who would have thought?”
Gina asked. “He visits Kevin at NYU.”
“The guy was his and all
the other dorks knight in shining armor,” Laurine nodded. Kevin Hiroshi. Was
two years older than them and a junior when they first started. He was on the
football team and berated the bullies for giving Garret and other guys a hard
time.
“Are you saying Garret is
a dork?” Gina asked.
“Nope,” Laurine shook her
head. “I use dork in the sense of target for the bullies. Kind of like
Ricardo.”
“Well anyway Garret says
he is taking me to a coffee house after school.”
“Ooh a coffee house,
perfect for the first date.”
“I will call you to tell
you how it went,” Gina said. She suddenly tensed up.
Laurine looked to see
why. Garret, Ethan and Ricardo were walking their way. Garret had a huge smile
plastered across his face and seemed oblivious to Ethan and Ricardo who was
staring at the new girl across the way. In fact Ricardo kept staring her and
did not see the open locker door in front of him.
KLONK
Ricardo struck the door
with his head fell a few inches back toward Garret and Ethan.
“Whoa,” Ethan said as he
caught his friend. “You okay?”
“What happened man?”
Garret asked.
“Ricardo,” Laurine ran up
to them.
“Did she see?” Ricardo
asked. He did not seem to care that a bruise was developing on his forehead.
“Who?” Gina asked.
“The new girl,” Ricardo
pointed toward the direction Kayla was standing, or tried to. He was actually
pointing at the floor.
“Uh Ricardo,” Laurine thought
of the best way to try and tell him and decided to go the honest route.
“Everyone saw.”
“Aw man,” Ricardo closed
his eyes.
“Dude, you have a
contusion on your head,” Garret said. “I think that should be your main
concern.”
“I do?” Ricardo reached
up to touch his forehead.
“Don’t touch it,” Laurine
said. “You need to see the nurse.”
“She’s right,” Ethan
said. “We’ll take you to her.”
“Do you need any help?”
Gina asked.
“Nope,” Garret smiled at
her. “No sense everyone being late for their next class.”
“Let
us know,” Laurine said. It seemed like she judged the day to quick.
Feldspar stared the youma in its glass like
eyes. “Chromidian are you ready?”
“I am always ready,” the
youma nodded. She was tall and lithe, one half of her was silver and the other
side was black. She wore a white and gold bikini top with shoulder pads, and a
short white and gold skirt. Her silver half wore a gold boot that ended at the
knee and a gold wristband. Her black half wore a white boot and wristband.
“Then come at me,” Feldspar
commanded.
Chromidian ran towards
him with her blade drawn. She was about to slice at his side when he twirled
around and blocked her strike.
“Always good at defense
master,” Chromidian said and went to strike again.
“Stay on your toes,”
Feldspar deflected the attack and went to strike against her.
“Always,” she blocked it
and blocked the second attack.
“Very nice,” Feldspar
said as he blocked another attack. “You have been practicing.”
“As per your
instructions,” Chromidian said and tried to strike again.
“But you still need to
train harder,” he ducked and drop rolled a few inches until he was behind a
youma. With lightening like reflexes he shot up behind her. “If you ever wish
to defeat me.” He struck her blade and knocked it out of her hands.
“Very good master,”
Chromidian bowed before him.
“Yes,” Chrystia said from
the doorway. She was clapping. “That was beautiful.”
“Chrystia,” Feldspar
smiled. Seeing her, as well as having a few sparring sessions took his mind of
his latest defeat.
“I wish to speak with
Feldspar alone,” Chrystia said to the youma.
“Yes my lady,” Chromidian
said.
“I want you to train
more,” Feldspar said to his youma as she exited the room. “How has your search
been?” He said to Chrystia.
“For a new target?”
Chrystia asked. “Lousy. She slipped behind him and placed her hands on his
shoulders. “You are way too tense.”
"It’s because of
them," Feldspar said. He tried not to think of the enemy as Chrystia
worked her fingers on his shoulders.
"Don't let them get
to you," Chrystia told him.
"Why shouldn't
I?" Feldspar grumbled, "They ruined my plans again. They are always
ruining our plans."
"You sent some
energy to Borice. You sent a lot of energy to him.” Her voice and taken on a
purr like vibration that sent a sensual chill down his spine. “Unless you are
upset that because of them it is taking longer than we hoped.”
"It’s not
that," Feldspar sighed. “We will be able to break free our leader. We will
be able to have enough energy to take over this planet. I just fear that when
we do they will show up and try to stop us and now they have gotten into
contact with the Sailor Soldiers my worries have doubled.”
"Don’t worry. I know
how to get them."
"How?"
"We work
together," she stepped away from him. “Instead of focusing on a target I
worked on developing a plan on how to kill our enemy, or at least two thirds of
them. Our dear Azurite seems to have a thing for Lady Andromeda.”
“He believes she is his
princess,” Feldspar said. He knew what Azurite’s main reason for joining the
Dark Kingdom was. It was because he was in love with Princess Harmony, but her
father refused her to marry a lowly musician instead of another prince or
another man of noble blood, or a soldier.
“We will just capture her
for him.”
"Where and when will
we take on our enemy?"
"We will lead them
into a trap and then attack with our most powerful soldiers. You choose two or
three of yours and I will use my Beryllium Trio " She smiled and looked
into his eyes.
“Beautiful,
just like you.” He held her for a few seconds before kissing her.
”My pendant," Sadie
said as she opened the little jewelry box. Inside was a bronze necklace with
star shaped pendant that had a little topaz stone set in the center. "I
don't know how to thank you." She wasn’t expecting a phone call so soon
after school. The phone call turned out to be from Mr. Xanatos who informed her
of the arrival of her star pendant. She tried to contact the others through the
communicators but they were busy. Laurine did ask her to come by and take
Celeste to the castle.
"No thanks is
needed," David Xanatos said. He
looked pleased with himself as he opened up a different package. “I’m just glad
that I’m able to help you.”
“I still want to thank
you,” Sadie said as she put on her pendant. She pulled out her transformation
pen. "Centauri Galaxy Power Make up!" After transforming she picked
up her crossbow. "Star Pendant Power-up!" The pendant glowed as well
as the crossbow. When the glowing
stopped the crossbow changed from a reddish brown and black to coppery brown
and gold. After powering up her weapon she reverted back to just being Sadie.
“I see you don’t like to
wait until the last minute,” Xanatos said.
"I wanted to power
up before the next battle," She explained. She stared at her crossbow. How
was she able to going to take that home, or carry it around with her? She asked
Mr. Xanatos to hold it for her until she could get her pendant. Then she
remembered that Laurine keeps her ax in a subspace pocket.
"Planning ahead is
always wise,” Xanatos said.
"I agree,"
Celeste walked in.
"Any news from
Central?" Sadie asked.
"Several good
things," the rabbit seemed pleased with herself. “The message from Apollo
is that he and the fourth Lady are in the city.”
“Where will we meet her?”
Sadie asked.
“Apollo said she will met
us,” Celeste rolled her eyes. “Whatever that means.”
“Well since you told
Apollo who we are then he told her and she will find us that way,” Sadie
suggested. There seemed to be a history between the two of them.
“That could be it,”
Celeste said. “I also have located the weapon for the fifth lady. It is in
Portugal.”
“Do you have the
information written down?” Mr. Xanatos asked.
“Of course,” Celeste
said.
"The solar pendant
is also on the way," Xanatos said.
"The necklace worn
by our leader," Celeste said. “If only we can find her weapon.”
"I thought that
Laurine was our leader," Sadie said.
"I was also under
that assumption, "Xantos added.
"Well she is good at
strategy but our destined leader is the one who wears the solar pendant,"
Celeste said. “The Moon Queen herself was the one who gave our leader that
role.”
"Where are Laurine
and Riley?" Mr. Xanatos asked.
"Riley's at work and
Laurine is studying for a math test," Celeste answered.
“We
should be getting back home ourselves Celeste,” Sadie said. “I have my own
homework to do.” She also had to transform just one more time to put her
crossbow away.
"Argh I hate
fractions!" Laurine complained loudly but only the freshwater fish in the
kitchen aquarium heard her, and all they did was swim around while doing the
glub glub thing with their mouths. “Okay, I have to get this. Fractions can be
good. I can apply it to art, learn what would make better combos for glaze
colors, and to figure out how to handle sales.” She continued to stare at the
problems, trying to figure it out. Damn. They were hard.
“Don’t make your head explode,” Tracy said as
she entered the dining area.
“Don’t you have something
productive to do?” Laurine asked as she flipped through her folder. She had
written down the step by step basics of doing some of the more complex
problems.
“Nope,” Tracy said and
poured herself a glass of orange juice. “Let me guess you having trouble with
the ole math problems again. Do you need any of my help?”
“Go away.” She did not
want to have to deal with her sister being a smart mouth
“But I make A’s and B’s
in math,” Tracy said in a smug tone. “Are you certain you don’t need help from
your genius sister?” She put the container of orange juice back.
“My genius sister who got
a D on her last French test?” Laurine asked
Tracy stared at her with
her mouth open. “I happen to be a mathematical genius, not a genius in every
subject.”
“I hope you figure out a
way to get out of here before I get out of my chair.”
“Fine,” Tracy grabbed her
glass. “You’ll be begging for my help.”
“Yeah right,” Laurine
muttered under breath. She tried the tricks she learned and worked on some
problems. When she had finished with twenty of them she checked the answers and
found she only got three wrong. "I'm getting better."
The phone rang. Laurine
pounced on it, thinking it was either Sadie or Gina back from her date.“
Hello?”
“Hi Laurine,” Gina
greeted on the other end.
"Hello Gina how was
the date?" Laurine asked
"Great,” Gina said.
“We talked about classes and the wrestling team and what we are going to do for
Thanksgiving and about after graduation, and he asked me to go to the movies
this Friday."
"What are you going
to see?"
"Nothing too new. We
are going to see Boogie Nights."
"Oh?" Laurine
remembered seeing that movie with Sadie, Gina and the rest of their friends on
opening weekend and were thankful that they were old enough for a rated R
movie. “You do know that his thing at the end is fake?”
"Duh. Do you want to
hear a little bit of gossip?"
"Well, Okay."
"I hear Ricardo is
wigged out on that new girl Kayla."
"I kind of gathered
that when he was too busy staring at her to see where he was going."
"You guessed it.
Garret confirmed it. While they were walking him to the nurse, Ricardo kept
complaining about how he had made a total idiot of himself in front of
her."
“That goob,” Laurine
tried not to chuckle.
“So is there any guy that
you like?”
"Well," How was
she going to explain this to her friend? Azurite was not the typical guy one
would have as a boyfriend and she shouldn’t be thinking of him as a possible
boyfriend. "I think a guy has a crush on me.” Thinking of Azurite made her
want to look at her music box. She pulled it out of her pocket.
“You don’t know for
certain?”
“No.” She looked up at
the door opening and watched as her brother and their mother entered.
“Is this guy anyone that
I know?”
“No. He doesn’t go to our
school. He’s older.” She had no idea how old Azurite was, but he looked to at
least be eighteen or nineteen.
“Laurine, could you speed
things up?” Mother asked.
“Uh-oh My Mother needs to
use the phone. Bye Gina."
“Bye Laurine,” Gina said
and hung up.
Laurine handed her mother the phone. She
noticed her brother was grabbing something in front of her, out of the corner
of her eye.
"What is this?”
Dylan asked. He had her music box in his hands.
“It’s mine,” Laurine
snatched it back. “That is all that you need to know.”
“Where did you get it?”
Dylan asked.
“At
the block party,” Laurine said. She brushed her books, her music box, and her
folders into her backpack. “Mom, Sadie will be coming to return a book she had
borrowed. Could you let her in? I’m going to be studying in my room.”
After dinner and a few
hours of quality TV time it was time for the news.
“Are you not going to
bed?” Celeste asked.
“Sort of,” Laurine was
wearing one of her nightgowns. “I’m going to watch and get read for bed. I’ve
already brushed my teeth and I’m just going to slip under the covers.”
“I’ll get the light,”
Celeste ran over to the light switch, jumped up and with her paws grabbed the
switch and turned it off.
“Maybe it might be a slow
news night,” Laurine said. She kept the remote next to her pillow, and turned
to watch the screen.
Travis Marshall was not
in his usual. Instead it was occupied by a woman with dark and wavy hair and
wore dangly sparkly earrings.
" Good evening and
welcome to WVRN news at eleven,” the unfamiliar woman said. “I'm Chrissie
Treezer filling in for Travis Marshal."
“ I wondered what
happened to Travis,” Laurine said as the new lady started to report of the top
stories involving a fire.
“Maybe he is sick,”
Celeste suggested.
“Could be,” Laurine
shrugged. “Although he seems to never get sick.” She remembered how Travis
looked the past few nights and remembered how he seemed giddy about his expectant
wife. “Oh that’s right. His wife is pregnant, very pregnant. She must be giving
birth.”
“That would explain
things,” Celeste nodded.
“I wonder if they will
mention the new baby.”
They returned their focus
to the news as Ms Treezer had finished her news report about the fire and went
on to discuss a bank robbery and a drug ring bust.
“Meh, if those thieves
had tried at night then they would have had their butts handed to them.”
“So true,” the rabbit
nodded. “Wasn’t this the second group of drug dealers that were arrested this
week?”
“Almost,” Laurine said.
“It has been over eight days since the last.”
“Young women in their
late teens should be on the lookout,” Treezer reported. “Two girls in the past
three days have gone missing. The first is seventeen year old Ame Thistle. Who
went missing on her way home from a visit to the drug store and yesterday
eighteen year old Morgan Knight never returned home after her shift ended at
the grocery store.”
“That doesn’t sound
good,” Celeste said.
“No it doesn’t,” Laurine
said and focused on the story.
The two girls both fit
the basic stats. They were good girls who made good grades, had plenty of
friends who were worried about them as well as their parents. Both disappeared
while traveling from point a to point b.
“I want you and the
others to be careful,” Celeste said.
“We
will,” Laurine nodded. “And they will probably talk about it the next day at
school tomorrow.”
Laurine was right. The
next day a school everyone was talking about the news about the kidnappings. Some
of the students were even afraid. Some had even wanted to call out sick out of
fear that they might get kidnapped.
“Two girls gets kidnapped
and everybody has lost their mind,” Laurine said to Donna. They were waiting
for Miss Williams to enter and since their teacher was running behind they
decided to stand around.
“Hysteria and paranoia go
hand in hand,” Donna said. “Although it was just two that were kidnapped.”
“Did you see the line of
students to the principal’s office?” Ricardo asked. “It’s almost a mile long.”
“A lot of people want to
know what to do,” Laurine said. “They are scared and confused and they have a
lot of questions.”
“Some of them are too
scared to be here,” Donna added. “I heard some were asking the principal to
cancel school today.”
“I doubt those who want
to cancel classes today are doing it because they are afraid,” Ricardo said. “I
bet the just want to get out of school.” His eyes brightened. “As a matter of
fact I’m kind of feeling paranoid myself.” He spun around on his heels.
“Get back here,” Donna
tried to grab his shoulder but he was out of reach.
Ricardo was about to walk
out when he nearly bumped into the new girl.
“Oh sorry,” Kayla said
and stepped back.
“No problem.” Ricardo
stepped aside. “After you my lady.”
“Why thank you,” Kayla
smiled and entered the classroom. “Who says chivalry is dead?
“Our boy has fallen
hard,” Donna said in amused tone.
“Harder
than his head,” Laurine said while she tried to keep from chuckling.
Laurine glared at her
lunch tray as she walked toward her usual table. She felt today was going to be
a safe enough day to risk eating from the cafeteria since it was lasagna and
while the cafeteria style wasn’t as good as the kind she could get at a
restaurant it also wasn’t deadly.
She had no idea they were
going to burn it. She was used to the dark vermillion color of the food, not a
dark rust shade. The rest of the food was okay. The corn threatened to invade
the string beans, but that was all.
“Burnt yours as well?”
Donna asked as soon as Laurine sat down.
“Yup,” Laurine said and
used a spoon to tap her lasagna. “Food shouldn’t sound like it’s made of
plastic.”
“Maybe today is not a
safe day,” Gina said as she opened her lunch bag.
“I’m beginning to wonder
if any day is a safe day,” Ethan said. He was trying to use his plastic knife
and fork to saw into his food.
“I’m gonna go for it,”
Ricardo said. He was staring off into space a few minutes before. He stood up.
“Kayla.”
Laurine looked over her
shoulder. Kayla walked past their table carrying a purple vinyl bag.
“Kayla, care to sit with
us today?” Ricardo asked. “Er, I mean would you like to sit with us?”
“Sure,” Kayla smiled. She
sat down on the other side of Laurine and opened her bag. She pulled out a
thermos.
“What are you drinking?”
Ethan asked.
“Iced tea lemonade,”
Kayla said as she pulled up the spout in her thermos and stuck in a straw.
“Iced tea and lemonade
combined?” Gina blinked. “Where did you get that?”
“I made it,” Kayla said
before she took a slurp. “I just mixed the lemonade and the iced tea together.
Just poured into a container with ice, made sure the lid was on tight and then
gave it a good shake.”
“Shaken not stirred?”
Ethan asked.
“Exactly,” Kayla nodded
as she pulled out a couple of Tupperware dishes. She opened up one. It contained
a sandwich.
“What kind of sandwich is
that?” Laurine asked.
“Chicken salad,” Kayla
said before she took a bite.
“Did you make it
yourself?” Laurine asked. She remembered how Kayla said she liked to cook the
day before. “I mean make the chicken salad from scratch.”
Kayla nodded as she
chewed.
“I just have grilled
cheese and tomatoes,” Gina stared at her sandwich. “Carrot sticks, and a few
cookies.”
“I got some chips,” Kayla
pulled out a small bag of Ruffles. “And some home made carrot cake.”
“What I would give to
cook and make yummy stuff,” Laurine sighed.
“I don’t mind offering a
few lessons,” Kayla said. “I could start on the basics.”
“Trust me I have had
lessons,” Laurine laughed. “My mother is an excellent cook and she has tried to
teach me. It didn’t quite work out.”
“I know someone who would
love to have a cooking lesson,” Garret said. He was staring at Ricardo who was
staring straight at Kayla with pure adoration.
“Oh?” Kayla raised her
eyebrows.
“Ricardo here,” Garret
pointed at his friend.
“Ci present,” Ricardo sat
up.
‘Oh
boy,’ Laurine thought. ‘He certainly has fallen hard.’ She shared a knowing
look with Donna and Gina.
“I can’t believe I
haven’t thought of this before,” Laurine said as she carried Celeste in her
duffle bag on the way to her gymnastics class.
“You did have a lot of
stuff on your mind,” Celeste said. The bag was only zipped three fourths of the
way leaving and open area for Celeste to stick her head through. “You have
school work, fighting youmas and we spent a good quality of time trying to seek
out the second Lady in the group as well as trying to locate your weapons and
pendants.”
“And Sadie was under my
nose all the time,” Laurine said. “Riley was just a bit of surprise.”
“That one general,
Azurite is getting into your head.”
“And heart,” Laurine
added.
“Laurine, you shouldn’t
be thinking about that,” Celeste said in a stern tone. “He is the enemy.”
“Was he always an enemy?”
Laurine asked. “You confirmed what Rei said.
We were once princess’s in a past life and Azurite said we were lovers.
Was he once on the same side as us.”
“There is a possibility,”
Celeste said.
“Please Celeste,” Laurine
stared into her rabbit’s green eyes. “You have got to remember. I need to know
this.”
“Oh Laurine,” Celeste
sighed. “I will try to remember, but I also have to feel for the fifth lady.”
“I know,” Laurine said.
That was the reason why Laurine brought Celeste. There were several other girls
who were Laurine’s age who go to different schools. “I’m going to ask Riley to
take you with her during her next practice. She also agreed to take you to a
few other events to see if the fifth is at her school.”
“Help!” A scream came
from nearby.”
“What was that?” Celeste
asked.
“Someone crying for
help,” Laurine searched around the block for who was crying out.
“Help!” The scream came
from across the street. “Monster.” A young woman with long blue-black hair
stuck her head out the window of a building. “Someone help me please.”
A loud roar followed and
a black glossy hand reached out from behind the girl and clamped its claws over
her mouth and pulled the girl back into the building.
“What the hell?” Laurine
asked
“It’s the Dark Kingdom,”
Celeste said. “You need to tell the others and transform now.”
“No kidding,” Laurine
flipped open the top of her communicator. “ Sadie, Riley the enemy is attacking
near the YMCA.”
“I’m on my way,” Riley
said. “Keep the monster busy.”
“I’m here at work,” Sadie
said. “I’ll change in the locker room.”
“Thanks guys,” Laurine
sighed off and ran into the nearest alley. “I got to find a better place to
transform.” She held up her pen. “Andromeda Galaxy Power Make-up!”
“We have to figure out
which floor the monster is on,” Celeste said as she raced out of the alley.
“I think it was the fifth
floor,” Lady Andromeda said. “All I have got to do is get into the building and
just race up the stairs and-“
She was cut off by a
scream.
“Help me,” the same girl
had briefly escaped from the monster and was on the top of the building. “Oh
please someone help me.”
“Stay cool,” Andromeda
shouted at the roof. “I’ll be right there.”
The girl screamed again.
The monster had caught up to her. It was tall feminine figure half silver and
half glossy black with long gold and white hair. The figure chased after the
girl.
“Lady Andromeda,” Celeste
said. “Don’t just stand there.”
“I’m
on it,” Andromeda ran into the building and looked up. “Lot of stairs.” She
gulped. She thought of taking the elevator, but she didn’t want to wait for
one. She took a deep breath and ran up the stairs.
“All right youma,” Lady Andromeda
said as she climbed out on the top of the building. “Leave her alone, or answer
to me.”
The youma had the girl in
its clutches. It was staring at her in delight with the same face a child had
when they were holding a cookie.
“Help,” the girl cried
out.
“Don’t worry,” Andromeda
said in a reassuring tone to the girl. “I’ll get you away from that monster.”
The youma hissed and
threw the girl over her shoulder. The monster ran to the edge of the building
and jumped. It landed on next building and continued to run while the girl
continued to cry and scream.
“Crap,” Andromeda said
and ran after the monster.
“You better tell the
others,” Celeste said as she ran along Andromeda’s side.
Lady Andromeda stared at
her wrist. She was about to flip open the lid to let the others know when it
started to flash. She was receiving and incoming message.
“Andromeda, Comet,” Lady
Centauri’s face appeared in the screen.
“Andromeda here. The
youma is on the move.”
“I can see,” Lady
Centauri said. “I’m on the ground. I can see you jumping from the building.”
“Where are you guys?”
Lady Comet asked.
“We were two blocks away
from the Y,” Andromeda explained. “Now we are heading southbound.”
“I’ll meet you on the
way,” Comet said.
Andromeda continued to
chase after the monster, following at building from building, barely noticing
that with each new building they were getting shorter and shorter. They dropped
down to a three-story building, to a two-story building, to one and then to the
ground.
“Wait up,” Lady Centauri
shouted. She was a few feet from where Andromeda landed.
“Where’s Comet?”
Andromeda asked.
“Right here,” Comet came
running from the left. “Is it me or have we done this before?”
“Too early for the clan
to help,” Andromeda said. The last time they were chasing after a youma they
ran into the gargoyles chasing after a rogue gargoyle who had swiped Comet’s
pendant. They would not be able to fun into such good like twice. Their friends
were asleep, their bodies petrified and unable to move until the sun sets.
“This time a civilian is
involved,” Celeste said.
“There might be three
civilians involved,” Centauri said. “What if the other two girls who were in
the news were also kidnapped by youmas?”
“That is a good point,”
Celeste said.
“Why is the Dark Kingdom
kidnapping ordinary girls?” Lady Comet asked.
“Maybe they want to use
them for a new energy harvesting idea,” Lady Andromeda said as se tried to
recall several evil villain ideas from various media. “Maybe they will
brainwash them into hosts for a contest of something, or maybe they are going
to be turned into youmas, maybe the Dark Kingdom is taking them somewhere to
completely drain them, or maybe brainwash them into becoming fake versions of
us and have them commit several crimes and then everyone would blame us.”
“I think you have been
watching too much television,” Celeste said dourly. “And stop reading so many
comic books.”
“She could be right,”
Comet said. “There are endless possibilities.”
“They could also be
bait,” Centauri said. “Our enemy could be using tem in a trap for us.”
“Either way I want all of
you to stay on your toes,” Celeste said.
They followed the youma
and the screaming, crying girl all the way to the docks where it ran into a
warehouse.
“Try a different
entrance,” Celeste suggested. “In case it is a trap.”
“Good idea,” Lady Comet
said. She took a deep breath and pressed her fingers together. “Comet tracking,
where is another entrance?”
The glowing pink sphere
appeared and circled around the building. Lady Comet and the other Ladies
followed it where it led them to a window near the roof.
“That looks as good as
any,” Andromeda said.
“How do we get in?”
Centauri asked. “We could scale the side but it will be difficult to get
through the window.”
“I’ll take care of it,”
Celeste said. The rabbit jumped onto the walls, sank her claws into the wood
and climbed up the side. She pressed her paws against the glass and pushed. She
squeaked when the window gave way and fell through on the other side.
“Celeste,” Andromeda
shouted. She climbed up the side of the building. When she reached the window
she grabbed the edge and peered inside. Celeste was on the ground and looking
up at her. She did not seem to be hurt at all. Andromeda looked around for the
enemy. All she saw was tall stacks of boxes, forming walls and creating a maze.
“How is she?” Comet
whispered. She and Centauri where right next to her.
“She is fine,” Andromeda
said.
“What about the enemy?”
Centauri asked.
“I don’t see them,”
Andromeda said. She climbed through the window and landed next to Celeste.
“Shhh,” the rabbit
brought a paw to her mouth. “We have to be very quiet. We don’t know where the
enemy is.”
Andromeda nodded. She
waited for her friends to climb through before they snuck around the paths.
They kept silent, not a word fell from their lips and they tried to keep their
footsteps light.
Andromeda froze when she
heard a whimpering sound. It was accompanied by sobbing and light thumping.
“The youma?” Comet
whispered.
“I’ll look,” Centauri
said and peeked around the corner. “Not the youma. It’s the girls. All three
kidnapped girls.”
The girl the youma had
along with the other two girls that were on the news. All three were tied up.
Two of them had gags in their mouths.
The Ladies ran towards
the girls. Lady Andromeda went to the girl with the strawberry blond hair. Lady
Centauri kneeled next to the girl with the dark colored hair and Lady Comet was
by the side of the brunette.
“Lady Andromeda,”
the redhead gasped.
“Not a word,” Andromeda
said. “We will get you out of here.”
“The monster might be
around,” the girl said.
“That is why we are
trying to get you three out of here and fast,” Andromeda said as she untied the
ropes. “We have no idea where it might be lurking.”
“Why worry too much about
my servant?” A familiar voice cut through the air.
“Feldspar?” Andromeda
said. She heard something whistle through the air and tried to move and
couldn’t. Something had pinned her skirt to the floor.
“Andromeda,” Centauri
shouted and a crackle of electricity was heard behind her.
Andromeda turned her head
to see what was going on and saw and only saw something dematerialize in the
air. She felt whatever had her pinned down being removed and turned around to
see Comet with a knife in her hand.
“He had you pinned,”
Comet said.
“Duck!” Celeste shouted.
Comet and Andromeda dove
for the ground and tumbled out of the way. They turned to see several glowing
arrows, launched from Centauri’s crossbow and strike the knives that were
rained down on them. Two arrows met their mark while the other three blades
struck the ground where the two girls were sitting.
“You are becoming quite
proficient with your weapons,” Feldspar said. He stepped out from where he was
hiding behind Centauri. He had a sword in his hand. “But you still have a lot
to learn.” He brought the blade down towards Centauri.
“Andromeda Sound Wave
Shatter,” Lady Andromeda sent her attack the same time Lady Comet used her
yo-yo to wrap around Feldspar’s sword.
The blade cut through the
string, snapping through the toy but Feldspar was still struck with Andromeda’s
attack.
“No,” Comet stared at the
severed piece of string in her hand.
“Why are you attacking us
now?” Andromeda asked. They fought against Feldspar the last time a youma
attacked. “Don’t you guys usually take turns?”
Feldspar chuckled from
where he was laying on the floor. His hair was tangled and out of place and he
was bleeding from his lower lip and right nostril.
“What’s so funny?”
Centauri asked.
“You three think we are
that predictable?” Feldspar asked as he stood up. “That will be your final
mistake. Chromidian come forth!"
“Yes master,” the same
black and silver Youma that had kidnapped the girl stepped forth. “We shall
take care of them.”
“What do they mean by
we?” Lady Centauri laughed.
The youma laughed as the
black and silver woman split into two separate halves. Each half regenerated
itself till it was complete. Now there was a silver woman dressed in a gold
bikini with shoulder pads, gloves and boots with long spiky blond hair. The
other half became a glossy black figure dressed in a white bikini with shoulder
pads and miniskirt, boots and gloves with long spiky white hair.
The obsidian half started
to go after Comet and Centauri. Her black shiny nails grew six inches.
The Chrome half went
after Andromeda. She held out her hand. Her fingers formed into sharp needles.
They shot from the hand and flew to Lady Andromeda.
Andromeda dodged most of
them, but a few hit and got stuck in her armbands.
The Chrome one was about
to attack again when Celeste jumped on it’s back.
“Thank you Celeste,”
Andromeda said. She felt her ax form into her hands. She struck the youma with
her blade a couple of times. She slashed the shoulder and it’s stomach using
all of her strength.
“Now use your sound
wave,” Celeste instructed.
Andromeda dropped her ax.
“Andromeda Sound Wave Shatter!”
The monster shrieked as
it formed several cracks in it’s body and crumbled into dust.
“Now for the other,” She
turned to see the other youma was pinned to a stack of crates by several
glowing arrows.
“Comet Interstellar
Explosion!” The pink fireworks struck the youma in the chest. Like it’s other
half she formed several fissures and cracks before it crumbled into dust.
“Oh well,” Andromeda
shrugged. She turned to where Feldspar was. “Now where were we?”
“That was one of my best
servants,” Feldspar hissed. He was still bleeding out of the corner of his
mouth and he had to lean against several crates to keep himself propped up.
“One?” Centauri asked. “I
thought it was two of them.”
“Two halves of one
person,” Feldspar said. “She was one of my best. She was skilled with the
blade, fought with skill and honor, and you destroyed her as if she was
nothing.”
“If she was your favorite
then why did you send her after us?” Andromeda asked. “You knew we would have
fought her and eventually destroyed her.”
“How annoying,” the voice
of Chrystia was heard before the short and gaudy woman stepped out from beyond
the shadows. “And how insolent.”
“Crazy woman,” Lady Comet
narrowed her eyes at Chrystia. “You don’t have Azurite to bail you out this time.”
Chrystia glared at them.
“You were the ones who were lucky he came. If he hadn’t stopped me from
attacking his princess then all three of you would be dead.”
“You talk the talk, but
can’t walk the walk,” Comet pointed at her.
“And you can’t use your
toy anymore,” Chrystia said as she helped Feldspar to his feet. “I heard it got
snapped in half.”
“She still has her
powers,” Lady Andromeda said.
“And so do we,” Lady
Centauri added. “And two of us have our weapons.”
“See what I mean?”
Chrystia made her lips into a pout. “They are so arrogant.”
“Then you should show
them what you have,” Feldspar said to her.
“That is true,” Chrystia
smiled. “I do have my three servants and you have already met them.”
“We have?” Lady Centauri
asked.
“Oh yes,” Chrystia turned
to the three kidnapped girls. “Aquamarine, Morganite, Amethyst it’s time to
play.” She snapped her fingers.
The ropes snapped and
fell from the three girls as their skin turned yellow and their ears became
pointed. The red head’s hair turned pink. Her blouse turned into a tight pink
tank top and her long flowing skirt changed into a loincloth. Pink whip like
streamers appeared in her hands.
The brunette’s hair
turned purple. Her blouse became a bikini top and her skirt shortened into a
mini skirt. Long and pointed purple crystals appeared in her hands.
The woman with the dark
hair’s blouse turned into a short tube top. Her pants shrank into hotpants. Her
hair turned into a bluish green color. Her hands turned into water.
“Crap,” Lady Andromeda
said.
“It was a trap,” Lady
Centauri said.
The one with bluish green
hair stepped forward and shot a jet stream of water at Celeste, knocking her
out.
“Celeste!” The girls
shouted.
Morganite sent a pink
streamer to Centauri pinning her leg to the ground.
Amethyst sent four purple crystals at
Andromeda.
Andromeda swatted three of them with her ax. The
fourth one nicked her shoulder.
"Centauri Stalagmite
Slash!" Centauri sent her shards to pin Ame against the wall.
Aquamarine in retaliation
knocked Centauri out with more water.
"No! Comet
Interstellar Explosion." Comet knocked out Aqua with her attack but her
arms were bound together by another of Morganite's streamers.
"Andromeda Soundwave
shatter!" Andromeda sent her attack to Morganite.
"Behind you!"
Comet yelled.
Andromeda turned just as
Ame used one of her crystals as a sword. She wasn’t killed by Comet’s attack,
she was just merely knocked out by it.
“No,” Andromeda said and
blocked the attack with her ax.
A scream was heard behind
them. Lady Andromeda used the distraction to knock out the crystal sword and
turned to see what caused the scream.
Aquamarine had come to
and was missing her hands. Next to her on the ground, was a copper chakram.
A golden rabbit leapt
into view and pounced on Aquamarine.
"Sun Light disk
Spin!" Three discs of golden light spiraled in. Two centered on Amethyst
destroying her and the last one sliced through Morgan and rendered her to dust.
Everyone seemed
surprised.
“Get off me vermin,”
Aquamarine screeched as she tried to shake of the rabbit.
The golden rabbit jumped
down and winked at Andromeda.
“Andromeda Sound Wave
Shatter!” Lady Andromeda sent her musical wave to Aquamarine, destroying her
"Where did that
other rabbit come from?" Feldspar asked. “And who sent those attacks? I
thought we had all the Galactic Ladies trapped."
"I am a Galactic
Lady," The same voice that sent the new attacks said. A red headed girl
jumped into view. She was dressed like the other Ladies with a red collar and
boots Her skit was an orange skirt that
was nearly knee length with bright red cloth flaps. Her star shaped barrettes
were also orange . She wore golden yellow tights, headband, and armbands. A
bright gold hair clip in the shape of a crown held some of her hair up.
"Who are you?"
Chrystia demanded.
"I'm Lady Sun,” The
red headed Galactic Lady said. “ In the name of the sun that warms this planet
and provides it light I will punish you."
"Lady Sun?"
Andromeda, Comet, Centauri and the villains asked.
‘Holy cow,’ Lady
Andromeda thought. ‘I’m never going to self criticize myself for having corny
sayings now.”
"The fourth
Lady," Celeste said.
"And I'm her
guardian Sweethearts." The golden rabbit said sounding like Bogart. He had
similar marking on his head, except his was silver.
"What the hell?"
Feldspar grunted. A circle of blades formed around him aiming for the ladies.
"Chaotic
Hal..."Chrystia started.
They both froze and
stared at each other. The circle of blades disappeared.
"You losers lucked
out, Coming Feldspar?" Chrystia asked.
"Of course my
love." Feldspar used one of his knives to cut open a gate. Chrystia
stepped through it first, followed by him. After he had stepped through the
gate had disappeared.
"Good
riddance," Comet said. "Welcome Lady Sun and?" She pointed at
the rabbit.
"Apollo." The
other rabbit said. "Uh-oh Lady Sun one of them' is injured."
"No problem."
Lady sun said. She walked over to where Lady Andromeda stood. "Sun
healing!" an orangish red beam of light centered on Andromeda's shoulder
healing it.
"Thank you Lady
Sun" Andromeda said
"Uh, Kay-I mean
Sun," Apollo started. "How many times have I told you not to use your
chakaram until you get your pendant."
"Oops, sorry
Apollo." Sun apologized and picked up her chakaram.
“Time to reveal who we
are,” Lady Andromeda said.
“Why?” Lady Sun asked
"Because we want to
show you our meeting place," Celeste said.
“We may have to phone
ahead,” Lady Centauri said.
“No problem,” Lady Comet
said and let her transformation drop. “There are plenty of payphones along the
way.”
“Good point,” Andromeda
said as she and Centauri dropped their transformations.
Lady Sun dropped hers as
well, revealing her to the be the new girl from school.
“Kayla Dargrian?” Laurine
and Sadie said.
“Whoa,” Kayla blinked.
“Laurine and Sadie?”
“I take it you three know
each other?” Riley asked.
“Yeah,” Laurine said.
“Kayla just started going to our school.”
“Two of you go to my
school,” Kayla smiled. “This is great.”
“We can talk about that
on the way to the Aerie,” Celeste said.
“Celeste is right,” Laurine
said. “Time for that Lady meeting.”