Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Once In a Blue Moon ❯ Episode 01 - Broken Peace! New Flames Arise! ( Chapter 1 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

"Who's this new girl we heard about from Ami-chan, Usagi?" Minako asked as Usagi entered Rei's shrine for their afternoon study session.

"Conti Trish," she answered, plopping down next to Rei. "She's an exchange student from the United States."

"Is she pretty?" Minako pressed.

"Is she snobby?" Makoto also asked.

"Is she smart?" Rei joined in.

"I don't know!" Usagi cried, "I only met her today!"

"Really, we should be focusing on studying, not the personal life of a new girl," Ami pointed out and the other girls groaned.

For a few minutes, the room was silent as the girls tried to follow Ami's advice and study. Usagi tried to focus, but she found her eyes kept wandering toward a stack of Sailor V comic books in the corner. After several minutes of watching Usagi's eyes wander, Rei finally strode over to the stack, picked them up, and carried them out of the room.

"I wasn't going to read them!" Usagi protested, but it fell upon deaf ears.

"I wonder…" Minako muttered, following the stack of comics as it left with her eyes.

"Wonder what, Mina-chan?" Makato asked, looking up from her history book.

"If we're ever going to have to battle monsters again," she finished, then blushed. "I doubt we will, because there's only so many bad guys you can fight."

"I wouldn't be so sure," Rei commented, overhearing the conversation as she returned to the room. "We thought that after we defeated Beryl, and then Wiseman showed up."

"Rei's right," Luna affirmed, appearing in the open window. "A senshi's job is nearly never done."

"Luna!" Usagi exclaimed, "Where have you been?"

"Nowhere," the cat quickly answered, jumping down from the windowsill to the floor.

"Nowhere, really?" Rei asked in a tone that showed she didn't believe that one bit, "Is it a nice place this time of year?"

Luna sighed and settled down on the floor, "If you really want to know, I was out patrolling. I have a bad feeling that something is going to happen."

"Picking up on Rei-chan's premonitions now are we?" Minako said, stooping over to pick the cat off on the floor.

"Actually, Mina-chan, I've been getting very vague vibes over the last week, but today they doubled in their intensity and I know I'm not just imagining it now," Rei stated.

"You can't mean that maybe," Usagi questioned, her eye's wide, "maybe Wiseman has come back?"

"No, Usagi-chan, he's dead," Rei assured her. "And these vibes seem to come from a new source. But anything beyond that I'm unsure of."

"You could consult your fire," Ami suggested.

"I've tried that already, but the flames are unusually quiet," Rei replied and sighed.

"We'll just have to keep our eyes out for anything unusual, then," Luna stated matter-of-factly.

"Hai," the girls agreed.

~*~

Usagi sat at her small desk on the floor in her room, trying to finish her math homework, as Luna supervised. Only ten or so minutes after the girls had agreed to keep their eyes peeled, the study group split up and everyone went to their respective homes. The blonde had still not finished her homework, so Luna had immediately hid all her comic books when they returned home, then hovered around Usagi as she made sure the blonde actually worked.

"Luna-chan," Usagi whined, "this is too hard! Why do they assign such hard homework?"

"Usagi-chan, it wouldn't be so hard if you actually paid attention during class," Luna replied, annoyed.

"But it's not fair--!" Usagi continued, but was cut off by her cat waving a paw at her.

Luna's ears were perked up and she was apparently listening to something. Usagi stayed quiet as well, and strained her hearing to figure out what had intrigued the cat. Faintly, coming from the living room TV downstairs, she could hear the reporter for the evening news.

"-chaos reigning here at the Tokyo Mall," the reporter was saying. In the background several screams split the air as he continued, "The origins of this thing causing all this havoc is unknown, but it appears to be claiming the energy of many shoppers…"

"Usagi!" Luna whispered, "We need Sailor Moon! Call the others and go!"

"Ok!" She answered, then flipped open her communicator, "Ami-chan! Rei-chan! Mako-chan! Mina-chan! There's something going on at the Tokyo Mall! Meet me there as soon as you can!"

"Hai!" They affirmed, then clicked off their own communicators.

"Moon crystal power, make up!" Usagi yelled after flipping shut her own.

After her transformation sequence, she bounded out the window and ran down the street at top speed toward the Tokyo Mall.

~*~

"Oh! That's a simply kawaii necklace!" Trish exclaimed in glee as she examined the necklace in a small jewelry store situated towards the center of the mall. "If only I had money!" She sighed, and moved on to the next one.

When she finally got to the end of the row of necklaces, she sighed wistfully one last time, then turned and left the store. Outside, she glanced around at the numerous shop signs, trying to comprehend the Japanese scrawled across each one, when she heard a hiss near by her, then a lady screaming bloody murder.

"Hell-o!" Trish cried in English as she spun around to see what was going on.

In front of her the lady who had apparently screamed laid lifeless on the tile floor, her eyes rolled up into her head. A creature of which Trish had never seen stood next to her: it appeared to be a shadow at first, shaped like a woman, except for the brilliant blue eyes that floated around in her head area.

"Gah!" Trish yelped at the sight of the shadow creature, and took an involuntary jump backwards.

The shadow paid no heed to her, though, but suddenly attacked a group of passersby who were staring, shocked, at the scene. The group of teenage girls shrieked and tried to run, but the shadow caught the ankles of two and they fell to the ground. The shadow hung onto them for a few moments, then let go, leaving them as lifeless as the lady.

Around her, the crowd in the mall began to panic as they noticed the three bodies and the moving shadow. A few even jumped as they saw their own shadows move, then bolted toward the mall exits. By then the shadow had grabbed three more people, two men, and one young girl, leaving them on the floor where they tripped.

Trish spun around to bolt as well, but then stopped short when she found a camera crew standing in her way.

"The origins of this thing causing all this havoc is unknown, but it appears to be claiming the energy of many shoppers…" a reporter was telling the camera.

The shadow lady had just taken down a group of shoppers when she noticed the camera crew. She hissed in delight and rushed towards the camera itself, shoving the startled man out of the way and placing her shadowy hands on the equipment. There was a frazzled spark of protest from the camera before it died and went blank.

"Get that thing away!" The reporter yelled, backing away as fast as he could.

But his outburst drew the shadow off the camera, fixing her eyes on him. He froze in fear and she seized the opportunity to grab his arm for a few moments, letting go as his eyes rolled up into his head and he collapsed to the ground.

"Fun," she hissed, the first word she had spoken that Trish could recognize.

The shadow looked around for more victims and her bright blue eyes fell on Trish, who quailed under the gaze but found she was unable to run. The shadow advanced towards her, both shadowy hands outstretched. Trish finally found she could back away, but as soon as she did, the shadow leapt forward and wrapped both her hands around her neck.

"Gah!" The pale girl gagged out as she actually found herself thrown backwards by the weight of the shadow.

"Stop right there!" A girl's voice called from somewhere behind Trish.

The shadow glanced up at the speaker, but still continued to sap Trish's energy and she began to lose her grip on consciousness. At the edges of her vision, she saw five shadowy figures and one that looked like a cat. Suddenly, a well-aimed red rose zoomed past her cheek and into the shadow's hand. The shadow gave a shriek of pain and let go of Trish's neck, leaving her dazed and confused.

"I'm Sailor Moon!" called the voice again.

Four other voices chimed in, "I'm Sailor Mars! I am Sailor Jupiter! I'm Sailor Mercury! And I'm Sailor Venus!"

"On behalf of the moon," the same voice continued. "We will punish you!"

"Oh yesss?" The shadow hissed, getting off of Trish, and letting her breathe again, "I doubt asss much. I am Umbra!"

She sprang toward one of the figures, who Trish could see was wearing some sort of school uniform, only with a green skirt and a pink bow. The girl backed up in surprise, but Umbra didn't reach for her neck. Instead she stood in place, took a deep breath, and then let it out in a stream of air that seemed tinted blue. It struck the girl in the face, and she froze in place, enveloped within a large block of ice.

"Sailor Jupiter!" Another girl in a red uniform with a purple bow exclaimed. She turned towards the shadow, eyes blazing, and yelled, "Burning mandala!" Flames appeared in the air around her, which she sent at Umbra.

Umbra seemed to grin, though how, since she didn't have a mouth, was unknown, as she let the attack fly straight through her and collide with a shop behind her. The girls stared in surprise at her for a split second, which gave the shadow enough time to let out another blast of frigid air. This time it connected with two of the senshi, the fire one who had attacked earlier and a short girl who had pigtails on top of her head, who reminded Trish of Usagi.

"Sailor Moon! Sailor Mars!" The two remaining girls cried in horror.

A rose flew through the air toward the pig-tailed girl from inside a shop. Umbra saw it, though, and released another blast which made the rose drop out of the air. Trish peered from her spot on the ground inside the shop to see a very surprised looking man dressed up in a tuxedo.

"Umbra, shadow, whatever your name is," Trish called out, trying to help the girls. "Will you go away?" She asked meekly.

The shadow turned towards her and Trish tried to stand on her feet, but barely managed it due to the little energy she had left.

"Did you tell me to go away?" Umbra hissed.

"Err, hai," Trish replied, not so sure it was a good idea any longer.

Umbra lowered her eyes and sent a very thick blast of air at Trish. The pale girl squeezed her eyes shut, expecting the worst. But instead of feeling cold air hit her skin, she felt a warmth spread across it, which strangely seemed to give her courage and strength.

Trish opened her eyes to see Umbra staring at her in amazement, and the other two girls were flabbergasted, but not as nearly so as the black cat who had been watching from the sidelines the entire time.

"Another Sailor Senshi?!" The cat, and unless Trish was hallucinating, exclaimed.

"Luna, do you know who that is?" The girl in a blue uniform asked.

"No," the cat answered, and Trish realized she wasn't hallucinating.

A glow of white brought the pale girl's attention away from them and she strained her eyes upward to see where it was coming from. The light seemed to be coming from her forehead, but that couldn't be right, Trish thought.

Bird song suddenly filled the air that had fallen silent, and a mockingbird flew into the area, glowing strangely with a purple light. The mockingbird swirled around in the air, then flew above Trish. Something white glimmered in its claws, and the bird dropped it from the air into Trish's hand, who caught it instinctively. The bird's song ceased and it vanished, but Trish didn't notice for she was busy studying the white thing.

It appeared to be etched from a starch white stone into the shape of a half of a yingyang. She gazed at it for a moment more before getting another instinctive feeling.

Without realizing what she was doing, Trish raised both of her hands into the air while clutching the stone and called, "Platos star power, make up!"

The white stone glowed brightly through her fingers and dropped from her hands, stopping to hover in front of her chest. A cone-shaped wall of bright, nearly white, flame rose up above her out-stretched hands from beneath her feet as she stood on tiptoe and twirled around like a ballet figurine in the air. Through the wall could barely be seen the outline of Trish's body as a body piece, then a skirt appeared on her. The rest of a sailor outfit very much like the one's the other two girls were wearing appeared and the flame widened at her feet to the same width across as the top before curling up upon itself and vanishing.

Trish was left standing in a completely white fuku, from her elbow-long gloves to her ankle-high boots. She had one gloved hand behind her head and the other stretched out to the side. On her head was placed a silver tiara with a white, oval-shaped gem in the middle. On her front bow was the white stone.

Still in her post-transformation position, Trish called, "I'm Sailor Platos and-" she suddenly looked down at her outfit, "-why am I wearing this?!"

Umbra laughed, "How pitiful!"

The two girls looked very surprised and extremely confused. The one with a blue outfit turned to the little black cat on the ground next to her.

"Who is Sailor Platos?" She asked.

But the cat looked like it had seen a ghost, if that was possible for a cat to look like. It continued staring at Trish, but muttered back to the girl, "I thought they were only a legend."

"What? What do you mean?" She continued pressing.

"Enough chat!" Umbra growled, getting impatient at the lack of attention, "Sssenssshi are sssenssshi and all sssenssshi ssshould die!"

"Not yet!" The girl in orange and yellow exclaimed, "Venus love me chain!"

She threw a long chain of orange hearts at the shadow. Umbra looked at it, then turned toward Trish as it went straight through her.

"Huh?!" She exclaimed.

The blue girl had a small computer out in one hand and a blue-tinted visor had appeared across her eyes. "Sailor Venus, all of our attacks go through it. Hold on while I scan it for a weakness…"

"Yeah, just hurry," the girl called Sailor Venus replied.

"I'm not an it!" Umbra cried, spinning around toward them, "I'm a ssshe!"

In her anger, she let out another breath of frigid air which fell upon Sailor Venus. A block of ice formed around her and her expression froze to a shocked look.

"I've got it!" The blue girl cried, then looked up to see her friend frozen.

Her face dropped as she stared at Sailor Venus. Then she glanced around the room, noted that everyone else was also frozen, and her eyes fell upon Trish.

"Fire!" She continued, "If you aim a fire attack at her eyes, that should do it!"

"Attack? Like the thing that Venus gal just did?" Trish replied dumbly, "Look, I'm just an innocent bystander, whoever you are."

"Sailor Mercury," she replied. "And you aren't a bystander. You're a senshi!"

"Sailor Platos!" The black cat called, and Trish looked around to see who she was addressing. "There's no one else here, Platos! You have to help! We need to release Sailor Mars so we can defeat this monster!"

"Sailor Mars?" Trish blinked, "Are you all named after planets?"

"Yes!" Sailor Mercury answered, starting to look exasperated, "Sailor Mars is the senshi with a mainly red fuku. I would try to release her, but my attacks are based on ice and that'd only add to the problem! I'm sure you- agh!"

While they conversed, Umbra had become more annoyed. They didn't notice when she suddenly disappeared, and now she reappeared behind Sailor Mercury and grabbed her neck.

"Sailor Mercury!" The cat exclaimed, and tried to pounce on the shadow, but instead sailed right through.

Trish was filled with fear; she had no idea what to do. She glanced around, looking for any help, and noticed the man who had thrown the rose was also encased in a block of ice. Sighing, she closed her eyes and tried to relax. Instantly, an image of flames burst into her mind, and she found herself holding her hands cupped together out in front of her.

"Cyclone inferno!" Trish yelled.

Around her feet once again rose a wall of blazing white flame, which rose upwards to cover her head. But this time it continued upwards, first showing her feet, then skirt, then head as it shaped itself into a tornado above her head. The fiery tornado floated from there into her cupped hands. Trish threw it forward and watched as it sped toward Umbra and Mercury.

Umbra's eyes widened in fear and she disappeared in a spark of blue light, letting Sailor Mercury breathe again. She saw the cyclone and rolled out of the way, then watched it as it continued on its path, swerving around the ice blocks.

As it passed each block, the ice melted into a puddle, releasing each of the sailor suited girls onto the floor. They girls coughed and hacked, not bothering to brush their soaking wet hair out of their eyes. When the tornado passed the last girl, it dispersed in a swirl of smoke.

"She's gone," Sailor Venus stated, being the first to her feet.

"But who's she?" The one Trish identified as Sailor Mars asked, looking at her.

"I'm Trish," she replied.

"Meet Sailor Platos, everyone," the cat said strolling up in front of Trish.

"Sailor who?" A girl with blonde pigtails atop her head asked.

"Another senshi?" The girl with a green based outfit wondered.

"Luna, would you care to explain?" Sailor Mars said.

"Certainly," the cat, Luna, answered. "But best not here. I think we should all go back to your temple for this."

"Wait just a second," Trish interrupted. "I know you're Mars," she went on, pointing at each, "You're Mercury, you're Venus, and you're Luna, but who're the rest of you? And who is that man over there?" She jerked her head toward the still frozen man.

"Tuxedo Kamen!" The pig-tailed girl exclaimed and ran to the man.

"That's Sailor Moon," Mercury explained, walking over to Trish. "And she's Sailor Jupiter," she pointed at the tallest of the girls.

"He's frozen!" Sailor Moon yelped.

"I'll fix that," Sailor Mars said smugly. "Burning mandala!"

The flames quickly melted the ice into a puddle around the man's feet and he fell over. Sailor Moon caught him in her arms, staggered a few feet under his weight, then placed him gently on the floor with Sailor Venus' help.

"Oh, Mamo-chan, wake up!" Sailor Moon cried, dropping to her knees next to him and running a hand through his hair.

A few moments later he groaned, opened one eye, then the other, and sat up. "Sailor Moon…is that shadow gone?" He asked, rubbing his head with one hand.

"Oh I'm so glad you're okay!" She replied, not answering his question. She grabbed him and placed him in a tight hug.

Sailor Venus nodded yes when he glanced over at her for help. Tuxedo Kamen looked relieved as he let Sailor Moon hug him. After a few minutes, he was able to pry her off enough to stand to his feet. He noticed Trish for the first time and his eyes widened.

"Who're you?" Tuxedo Kamen wondered.

"Me?" Trish queried, looked around to make sure she was the one he was talking to, then answered, "Trish, Trish Conti, uh, I mean, Conti Trish."

"Which is your first name? Trish?" He asked, confused, and Trish nodded.

The man wearing a cape looked like he was about to ask another question, but a large team of reporters came running through the mall toward them, cameras rolling. The girls around her stared at the group for a moment, until the reporters starting shouting to each other excitedly as they spotted them. Then they nodded to each other and ran the other direction.

Trish stared stupidly after them for a second, until Sailor Mercury noticed. She came running back to her, grabbed the pale girl's hand, and dragged her along.