It could be said that for good to exist in the universe, evil, must also be present. One cannot have their Ying without a little Yang, their sun without a little rain, their... You get the picture. Evil does exist, and it's always out to usurp the great, cosmic balance of things, trying forevermore to tip the great scales of order and chaos to their own evilishy evil desires. Usually, evil ends up blowing it. *** BGlanders presents... The Great Magical Girl Wars Chapter 2: Star-crossed destines Or Arg! Why is this fic backwards?!? *** NOW, IN THE RELATIVE SENSE OF THE WORD... For all intents and purposes, Tsukino Usagi was in hell. In one decisive moment, the course of her spring had derailed sharply into oblivion by the cruel and unrelenting hand of the evil witch known as Ms. Haruna. In one fell swoop; the evil queen in question had taken the moon princess's after school time away from her for the next three weeks! No more hanging out at Rei's, no more shopping with Minako, no more... No more mid-afternoon splurging at the mall. Usagi stood before an apartment complex and once again checked the slip that her teacher had given her. After making sure that she was at the right door, she rang the bell, a sense of gloom already building within her. 'Knowing my luck the kid is probably gonna turn out to be a little hellion' Usagi yawned as she waited for someone to answer the door. It had already been what anyone, magically inclined or not, would have called a baaaaad day. ** 10 MINUTES AGO... ** Haneoka Meimi stood on a rooftop overlooking what was left of the Jubaan downtown park, trying like mad to catch her breath. The blue haired girl had just bolted in the direction that the blonde haired one had taken off in earlier, but Meimi was really too exhausted to notice. This was NOT how she had planned to spend her first day in Tokyo. All she wanted to do was to head to Sasami's and relax after the long train ride, but as she was walking to her aunt Kawaii's music store, she suddenly had an idea. "This has definitely been what I would call a bad day. Too bad, I was really hoping to get that little unicorn... I just hope Aunt Kawaii has some snacks or something to munch on at her place... after that fight I'm starving!" Meimi rubbed her now growling stomach as she scoured the city for her family. She had told them that she wanted to stop off at a gift shop and pick up something for Sasami as a surprise. As soon as her parents left, Meimi headed towards a nearby gift shop that she had visited on her last trip to Tokyo. As fate would have it, that gift shop was across from the Jubaan Park. ** 20 MINUTES AGO ** Sasami crawled out from the wreckage of a certain gift shop that stood conveniently across from Jubaan Park. Her costume was covered in soot and her body was covered in a plethora (big word!) of tiny bruises. After a quick look around she confirmed the fact that yes indeed, Pixy Misa had skipped out again. That however was not her primary concern at the moment. "Hey! Why'd you get between that bad guy and me? I was just about to get him with my pretty croquette bomber! Who are you, by the way?" The woman in question spun around at the voice. Obviously she was still tense form the battle, but after seeing her addresser she relaxed and put her tiara back on her head. "I am the Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon! I fight for..." The blue haired girl walked across the bubble-covered street to her taller compatriot and brushed off some more soot from her costume. Smiling, she cut her off. "I know that. I heard your monologue at the beginning of the fight. I was wondering how you did what you did, that's all. Are you from Juraihelm too?" As this was real life, the only sign of distress one could make out on Sailor Moon's face would have been one of confusion. However if this were one of those popular anime shows, then mayhaps one might have seen a rather large sweat drop appear on the side of Sailor Moon's head. "Um, no, no I'm not. I'll tell you what, kiddo. Why don't you leave the super hero routine to me, all right? You look a bit too young to be risking your life like this. You could have been really hurt by that blast..." Sasami's face flushed an angry bright red. "I am not too young! I'm old enough to take care of myself and besides, if I wasn't then Tsunami wouldn't have made me a magical girl in the first place!" Sailor Moon shrugged then surveyed the damage from the previous battle. The park was completely destroyed. The trees were scorched, the grass was blackened, and even the playground equipment had been trashed. Worst of all, the gift shop was in ruins. Usagi sighed, knowing that her unicorn idea was now defunct. Sailor Moon absently kicked a red-haired doll aside and tried to catch her breath. Suddenly she remembered that as of right then, she was supposed to be somewhere else. After casting a quick glance at the blue haired magical girl behind her, she took off running. "Hey, wait a minute! I wanted to ask you..! Oh well, I guess I'll see her around later..." Sasami sat on a park bench and sighed. She noticed that another red-haired doll was sitting right beside her, and in a moment of levity she giggled. 'Wow, those things are really Kawaii. I wonder if she can do any other tricks.' Sasami then remembered the other heroine that had intervened in her battle. After looking around the park, she realized that she was the only one left. "She must have taken off before I was knocked into that building. Oh well, I guess I should be happy that so many new people are helping me, but this is starting to make me feel crowded." Sasami suddenly remembered the other person that had been in the park before the fight. After once again frantically looking around and making sure the park was empty, she transformed and sprinted towards her friend Misao's apartment. "Misao! Please be okay..." Strangely enough, it just so happened to be in the direction that the senshi of the moon had headed in just a few minutes ago. However, at this point Sasami didn't care about the other magical girl in her city. All that she was concerned with was her friend's safety. At this point in time, a small pile of rubble started to shift as a very dirty cabbit emerged. Before passing out, it muttered two very weak and somewhat goofy sounding words. "...Magical bomb." ** ALSO 20 MINUTES AGO... ** Misao turned the key in the lock and opened the door to the apartment. It was small, as most apartments in Tokyo were, but it was all she really needed. Her guardian wasn't home yet; chances are she was working late again. Misao sighed and headed for the fridge to get some juice. After getting something to drink, she sat down on the couch and tried to concentrate. She had experienced another blackout shortly after leaving the park. She had been walking home when suddenly... It was all a blur. The next thing she remembered she had wound up at her doorstep feeling a bit sore, but otherwise all right. She remembered something about a battle... maybe it had all been just a dream. She sometimes had strange dreams them when she passed out, about magicians and fights. Sometimes she even dreamed about her parent's faces... She didn't know if that was normal or not, but even with her medication she was still having gaps in her days, and now the gaps were getting worse. She sat and shivered at the thought of someday losing all control all together. It was a nightmare that she had frequently; she would black out once and that would be it. An eternity of nothing. Of darkness. Before Misao could let herself slide fall along another downward spiral of depression, the familiar ring of her doorbell saved her. Happily she got up from her couch and headed for the door, hoping that it was Sasami. ** 30 MINUTES AGO... ** "This is getting a bit too extreme for my taste. Aurvior, Sammy. We'll meet again soon, I swear it!" With that, the blonde bombshell leapt out of the sea of red-haired dolls around her for the nearest rooftop. Behind her, she could hear a flood of cursing from Jadeite, but at that point in time she figured that if he was dumb enough to stick around then he deserved what was coming to him. "Rumia, why are people so incredibly stupid? I mean, it's pretty obvious that we were outgunned. You saw what happened to that David Bowieish guy! And those dolls...! It was just getting too weird for my taste." Misa ran across the rooftop and bounded to another one as a certain purple bird quickly followed. "Misa, you shouldn't have abandoned him like that! At least leave him a demon or something, I mean, he's alone against all three of them!" "He's an idiot, Rumia! If he's dumb enough to think we had a chance then let him get fried!" "He's on our side, for crying out loud! Geez, no wonder super-villains never win in the mangas; they're too stubborn to work together!" Misa stopped and glared at her purple partner. "Fine Rumia. I'll leave them with one last goodie." With that, she pointed her magical baton in the direction of the park. "PIXY WRATH OF GOD!!!" Rumia gulped as the giant surge of yellow energy shot forth towards the park. As soon as she had finished, Misa made a hell-bent dash for the next roof. "Come on, Rumia! We've got to get out of range!" "Nani?" Before anymore of Rumia's questions could be answered, a bright light, followed by a loud noise and shock wave rammed into him, causing him to catch up to his blonde mistress. 'This has gone on long enough. It's time to bring Misao back.' ** ABOUT 28 MINUTES AGO... ** Jadeite was having a bad day. That witch Misa had abandoned him and the count was... well... out for the count, so to speak. He was tired, mad and now getting extremely agitated by the hundreds of red-haired dolls all around him. Top all that with a thick blanket of smoke that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere and one could say that all in all, things were not exactly great for the nega-general. "You're mine, Sailor Moon! You and that little blue haired wanna-be behind you!" Jadeite was screaming in his most threatening voice. Of course, the fact that one of the aforementioned dolls had just leaped on top of him and was currently smothering him didn't exactly lend to his threatening posture. Sammy, who was now miffed at having her spell interrupted, screamed back. "Hey now! I'm no wanna-be! I'm the real deal, Pretty Sammy, coming straight at you!" Unfortunately, Sammy, like her new nemesis, was also buried under a pile of dolls. She had wanted to get Pixy Misa, but she had bolted when the bolting was good. Seeing as how there was only one standing villain, she turned her attention towards Jadeite and his monster-of-the-week. It was then that she realized that the other magical girl was still standing in her way. Sammy coughed from the thick cloud of smoke around her and tried to make out what the newcomer was saying. "Hiding behind a youmma, Jadeite? I should've guessed you were that big of a coward! I am Sailor Moon, champion of love and..." "You already delivered your stupid monologue!" Jadeite screamed from underneath a pile of dolls. Where the heck were these things coming from anyways? Suddenly Jedite made a mental connection. 'Wait! These things look like cute, super-deformed versions of that other magical girl that was here! What in God's name are these?!?' The youmma however, didn't care about the dolls. The smoke was starting to annoy its sinuses, but that wasn't important at the moment. All this may have distracted its master, but that wasn't its concern. Its primary goal was to destroy. To rip the flesh from these pretty sailor's bones. To munch and tear and... And what exactly was that strange glowing ball heading right for them? Usagi, who at this point was midway through her tiara spiel, also noticed the glowing orb heading straight for the group. Sammy also paused to take a look, but was interrupted when she heard Ryo-Ohki screaming. "Sammy, run! It's a magical..." Unfortunately, the rather large explosion that ensued cut him off. ** 35 MINUTES AGO... ** "Who the hell are you?" The question was posed by a now buried general who at this point in the story was incredibly pissed off. Things just hadn't been going right since the attack began. Three yoummas had already been destroyed and Count Mecha had already proven his usefulness, or lack thereof. The third girl and also the one Jadeite had questioned a moment ago, smiled at the general as he proceeded to be covered in a pile super-deformed kawaii bouncing dolls. Jadeite tried once again to liberate himself, but as soon as he was free to aim a force bolt, another barrage of strangely dressed dolls assaulted him. He had meant to say some clever catch line, then blow Pretty Sammy away, but upon being assaulted once again found that he could only manage a "Gaah..!" Sasami looked to Meimi, who was now smiling through her smoke screen in triumph. "Wow! Thank you very much!" Meimi nodded and returned the smile. Thankfully, the smoke kept Sasami from making out Meimi's face. However, another was paying somewhat closer attention. "Sure! Any time!" Meimi then noticed that this battle had drug on too long, and besides she was almost out of tricks. If anything, this was probably the best time to make a stylish exit. With a wave of her staff and a cry of "Balloon Magic!" Meimi was floating away from the fray. Pixy Misa, seeing the newest arrival to the fight beating a hasty retreat, made an attempt to stop Meimi with her baton. It probably would have worked had not two seconds the swastika shaped shrunken that left her hand was knocked off course. Misa looked on in shock as the tiara that had interfered with her shot flew back to its owner's hand. "Not so fast, lady. I am Sailor Moon, champion of love and justice, and in the name of the Moon, you shall pay for the crummy day I've had!" "I've already heard enough stupid monologues from Sammy so I definitely don't need to hear them from you. Look, I've got no time for common people with common problems so leave. Goodbye. Go." Misa turned her back on the Senshi of justice as a rather frantic purple bird was screaming in our favorite blonde villain's face. "Misa are you insane? That's Sailor Moon! If we don't stop her now she'll wipe the floor with us! You saw what happened to Count Mecha..!" Misa cast another glance at the senshi who at this point was a bit too occupied with one of Jadeite's yoummas to notice anything else, like an army of kawaii dolls or a talking bird. "You never said anything about fighting her, Rumia. Hmm, Sammy is enough trouble, and Jadeite over there isn't really doing much except throwing monsters at them." "And just exactly what do you do when you fight?" "Touché, Rumia. Anyway, we're outnumbered and this is out of my league. Besides these dolls have pushed things beyond the conventional standard of weird." Misa grabbed her baton and did what any self-respecting villain would do. "You coward! Come back here and fight!" Jadeite was a might bit muffed at the fact that now both his compatriots had abandoned him. As he worked to free himself from the mountain of dolls, he summoned a new, more powerful youmma to hold off Pretty Sammy, who was at this point charging said pile with a glowing magical baton. "Pretty Croquette..." Before she could finish, Usagi jumped between Sammy and her target. "All right Jadeite, now it's my turn!" Sammy stopped short and gawked at the fact that someone had interfered. Her anger was soon directed elsewhere as a rather large youmma landed in front of them and proceeded to bear a host of sharp and pointy parts of its body. "You're mine, Sailor Moon! You and that little blue haired wanna-be behind you!" Sasami moved to challenge the statement, but was then buried by a final pile of runaway dolls. From her rooftop vantage point, Meimi muttered a tiny "Oops." As she turned to leave, Meimi shrieked and ducked as a quickly moving yellow orb was heading straight at her head. As she picked herself back up, Meimi heard the smaller, bluer magical girl saying, "Hey now! I'm no wanna-be! I'm the real deal, Pretty Sammy, coming straight at you!" "That's not the only thing coming straight at you," Meimi muttered as she watched the orb descend into the fray. Moments later, she was doing all she could not to be blown away by the force of the blast. Once the explosion was finished, Meimi finally peeked her head over the building ledge to survey the damage. "This is definitely not how I wanted to spend my first day here." ** 41 MINUTES AGO ** "Moon Prism Power!" As Usagi underwent her transformation sequence, she silently swore to herself at how bad her day was going. After all, she didn't have time for a mid-afternoon battle to the death. She had that Big Sister Helper job and if she didn't go through with it, it would mean a month of detentions if she skipped out, but this was her first priority and besides, she needed to relieve some stress. For one brief moment she debated calling her teammates, then shot that thought down. This wasn't going to be work. This was stress therapy. Those monsters in the park were there for her to spill her angst upon, and at this point in her day, she had a hell of a lot to spew. Ms. Haruna had already kept her for detention, her quiz came back with a D and to top it all off her lunch consisted of over-nuked instant Ramen. Those monsters would pay for her suffering. They would pay for her detentions. They would pay for all that was wrong in this world! In a low and somewhat serious voice, Usagi made a solemn promise. "In the name of burnt instant Ramen, you will pay!" With that Sailor Moon sprinted in the direction of the park. Once she saw the full extent of the battle however, she stopped cold. This was definitely not what she had expected. She saw what looked like a really young version of a senshi with two long ponytails fighting off a combination of what looked like yoummas and nightmarish Barbie clones. One of her attackers she recognized instantly as Jadeite. The other, a young blonde in a purple outfit that made Usagi's look humble, was standing beside him and laughing that trademark evil laugh. As she was about to move in to assist the younger heroine, she noticed that there was one more player in the game. By the edge of the park there were what appeared to be a clump of bushes. From Sailor Moon's viewpoint however, she was able to see that someone was hiding in said bushes. Someone with a high powered rifle. Looking back to the fray she realized all too quickly just who the target of the assassin was. "I've got to stop him before he kills that girl!" With that, Sailor Moon reached to her forehead and brought her tiara forth, then proceeded to hurl it as fast and as hard as she could. Only after it left her hand did she realize that maybe she had thrown it a bit too hard. At this point, the princess of the moon could manage only one word. "Oops." ** ALSO 41 MINUTES AGO... ** "I have you now, Pretty Sammy!" The speaker in question was Count Mecha: hunter of humans, ruler of galaxies and impersonator of British pop stars. He was currently hiding in a convenient clump of bushes and taking aim with his high-powered rifle at one particular magical girl. It was a classic diversionary maneuver. Distract Sammy to the point that even her powers of luck wouldn't be able to save her, then blow her pretty little head off. It was foolproof. Of course he knew that it was against the unwritten rule, but this was the exact reason his services had been required in the first place. If they were going to win the war, then it was only logical to eliminate the opposition before they could gain the upper hand. It was time to finish the resistance once and for all, and he was just the man, or in this case robot, to do it. As an expert hunter, Mecha knew the need for a surprise attack. To completely catch your enemy off guard was something that he relished in a victim. It was something he prided himself on as a skill that he hoped only to refine and sharpen in the years to come. As he lined the crosshairs up on her pretty brow, he suddenly heard someone yelling, "Moon Tiara Magic!" As he turned his fishbowl face to see who was screaming, he noticed that a rather fast and shiny projectile was flying straight towards him at an incredible speed, catching him completely by surprise. Also, before the golden disc could reach him, a small, funny looking rabbit thing was running away from his bush, screaming something incomprehensible. The cat-rabbit thing only took a moment of his attention, but when Count Mecha looked up again he realized that it was the moment he could've used to dodge. Before the tiara smashed into his face, dislodging his head and exploding his body into a thousand shrapnel shards, Count Mecha found himself muttering. "Figures." ** YET AGAIN 41 MINUTES AGO... ** Meimi was walking down the street lining the edge of the Jubaan Park, minding her own business and enjoying the bustle of the big city. It had been quite awhile since she had been anywhere this large and she was enjoying every minute of her time there. It was such a beautiful day, and aside from the distant sound of explosions coming from the other side of the park, everything seemed all right. The gift shop she was looking for was just up the street. It was a small store crammed between a grocery store and a manga booth. Meimi wanted to get Sasami something for letting her come and visit for several weeks. After all, Sasami had been generous to let Meimi stay in her room, and for that a gift had to be given. As Meimi walked by the show window, her eyes fell upon what she believed would make the perfect gift; a tiny crystal unicorn was standing on its hind legs in the display case, just waiting for someone like Meimi to buy it. Before she could enter the store, however, a rather fast projectile shot past her and crashed into the front window, shattering every object inside. After being froze for several seconds in pure shock, Meimi blinked several times and noticed that yes indeed, her gift had been annihilated. Meimi was crushed. Here she was, in Tokyo on her relatives' good graces, and someone had the nerve to destroy the very gift that she had meant to buy! When she turned to yell at the vandal that had smashed her present, she finally noticed that there was a battle in progress in the park. "Normally I wouldn't want to get involved in something like this, but for smashing my present to Sasami, I shall not forgive them!" With that, she ducked into a nearby alley. Moments later the cry of "One! Two! Three!" Could be heard. ** A MINUTE LATER... ** Meimi surveyed the scene before her. This wasn't her specialty, she realized, but even so, these people needed help and she wasn't about to abandon them. Plus she was still pretty upset about her gift's untimely destruction. She was perched upon a rooftop overlooking the park where a girl with two long blue ponytails had just used some kind of baton to take out some android looking thing when Meimi noticed the youmma on the magical girl's flank. It was closing in fast and the blue-haired one didn't seem to notice. "I have to distract them somehow... otherwise that girl is going to get hurt rally bad! Come on Meimi, think!" As the youmma was almost on top of our blue beauty, Meimi remembered her best and most kawaii diversionary tactic. "One! Two! Three! Chibi Tail Magic!" With a wave of her wand, dozens of super-deformed dolls emerged from seemingly nowhere, all of them landing on top of the youmma who was at this point quite confused. Once the scene had been tossed into complete pandemonium, she picked a landing point and jumped into the fray, crying out her trademark battle cry as she tossed out several smoke bombs. "It's ShowTime!" ** GEEZ, A LOT HAPPENED 41 MINUTES AGO... ** Sammy was doing her best to hold off the mass of monsters that here before her. The yoummas were a bit harder to get rid of than the Pixy demons, but she was still holding her own. Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw some flashing lights at the edge of the park, but paid them no heed. Ryo-Ohki however, did notice and chose that moment to emerge from his hiding place. "That felt like a release of magical energy! I wonder if this is Tsunami's doing..." Ryo-Ohki looked to the now transformed Usagi in wonderment. He didn't know if the new magical girl was a friend or foe, so he did the only thing he could; he waited to find out. At was at this point that the blonde newcomer took her tiara from her forehead and threw it at a clump of bushes. Unfortunately, this same clump of bushes was where Ryo-Ohki had chosen to hide for the time being. With a yelp, he hopped away from his hiding spot and made a dash for his master, only vaguely noticing the accent tinted voice behind him muttering. ** YES LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, ITS STILL 41 MINUTES AGO... ** Pixy Misa was doing her trademark evil laugh while Rumia was busy squawking beside her. "Misa? Misa! Your demons aren't working! She's gonna be on top of us in a second. Would you can the laughter and listen to me for a minute?" Misa turned to her friend and shrugged. "Really Rumia, its no big deal. This is just a diversionary tactic. The real attack will be coming any second now..." She was cut off by the cry of "Moon Tiara Magic!" Moments later, a certain bush exploded in an array of mechanical body parts. A few seconds after that, the gift shop behind it also went up in smoke. Misa, like Meimi, stood frozen for a moment. Her blinking eyes were her only response to the fact that something had happened. Finally, she broke free from the shock. "...Or maybe not." Seeing as how the bad guy effort was now outnumbered, and as how she really didn't feel like dealing with the situation t the moment, Misa called up several more generic demons before making the decision to flee at the first opportunity. Sammy could wait until next time, and besides some of those funny-looking dolls were hopping towards her. "Get away from me you weird... things!" Misa fired off a volley of magical force bolts, instantly transforming the dolls into burnt piles of fluff. On her flank, Misa noticed that Jadeite was about two seconds from being buried by even more of those weird dolls. ** BACK TO AROUND 35 MINUTES AGO... ** Misa muttered to herself as she noticed the third and newest arrival floating away with some gigantic balloons. Now was her chance to even the score. If she could nail that one, then the playing field would be even again, and she could finally destroy her hated rival. Finally, things were going her way. She took aim, then let loose with her shrunken attack. If this didn't work, then it was sayonara for her. A split second before the baton made contact with its target, another, faster moving object knocked it off course. "That's it. I quit." ** 47 MINUTES AGO... ** "Okay, so does anyone have any questions?" The speaker was Jadeite. His audience, crammed in their shrub, was doing it's best to pay attention. As Jadeite was about to proceed, he noticed the raised wing of one of his comrades. "Yes Rumia?" The purple bird stepped forward and spoke. "Do we have to kill her? I mean, I know she's are enemy, but to take her out like this... I don't know if this is right..." Count Mecha bopped the bird on the head and sighed. Emotions were always such a problem when it came to an execution style killing. "Look, if we don't remove her now we'll never have a better chance. If you can't handle this, then I suggest you check your emotions at the door." Rumia sighed through his beak. He really didn't want to see anyone get killed, but Ramia had given him orders and as long as General Jadeite and his wacky assistant were with him, Rumia would be forced to see those orders out. Rumia finally nodded in agreement then remembered one last important detail. "Give me a minute or two to transform Misao. I have to do it away from Sasami, otherwise our cover will be blown." "And just how are you going to get Misao to leave? Go up and ask her, mayhaps?" The android's metallic voice echoed with sarcasm. Rumia shot him a dirty look, then looked to Misao as she played on the swings. "She'll leave on her own in a minute. She can't be out in the sun for too long or else she'll get sick again." Jadeite shook his head in disgust as he watched the children play. "Pathetic. These humans really make me sick, you know. They're cattle; stock energy for the Negaverse and nothing more. This magical girl of yours had better be worth the wait, otherwise I'm going to have you for dinner, little bird." Rumia gulped, then noticed that indeed, Misao was leaving the park. Sasami was still there, talking to her protector, that cabbit thing. "Give me two minutes and we can begin. Remember, take out Sasami if you have to, but don't hurt Misao. Got it?" The others nodded as the bird emerged from the bushes and took off after the raven-haired child. Jadeite and Mecha watched him fly off, then turned to one another. "As soon as all this is over, I want the pleasure of killing that little nuisance." Both villains paused, briefly surprised that they had said the exact same thing. ** ALSO 47 MINUTES AGO... ** Usagi walked by the park where she and her friends had done battle several times already this month. It was a lovely day, and Usagi briefly debated skipping her appointment and heading for the mall. Although the prospect of shopping aimlessly with her friends was appealing, it would just wind up getting her in more trouble. With a sigh of regret, she continued on her way, almost wishing that something would happen to distract her from this already bad day. As she continued on her way, something in a gift shop window caught her attention. It was a tiny crystal statue of a unicorn rearing up on its hind legs. Usagi stood admiring the statue for several moments, then made a decision. If she was going to spend the next three weeks with someone then she wanted to start those three weeks off right; with a gift. However just before she was about to enter the shop an explosion from across the street caught her attention. "Great. Just what I need today." Turning back to the unicorn, she pointed and said, "I'll get back toy you in a second!" Then she ducked into a convenient alley just off to the side. It was going to be one of those days. ** ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES ~ Whap! ~ ALSO 47 MINUTES AGO... ** Sasami was having a good day. The birds were singing, the sun was shining and that bush over there seemed to be talking, but other than that everything was going okay. Misao was sitting in a swing beside Sasami and dragging her feet in the dirt as she swayed back and forth. Sasami, distressed at her friend's distress, decided to ask what was wrong. "Misao, what's wrong? You seemed really bummed out today." Misao shook her head and coughed. "No I'm fine, Sasami. I just don't feel too good right now. I was thinking that maybe I should be getting home before too long." Sasami nodded and moved to her friend's side. "Do you want me to come with you? You really don't look too good, Misao." Misao smiled at her friend and shook her head 'no'. "That's all right Sasami. I can manage. You stay here and have fun and I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" Sasami nodded and then smiled brightly at her friend. "Hey, maybe you, me, my cousin and your new friend can all go out and do something together! How's that sound, Misao?" Misao nodded and smiled at the now giddy magical girl. "That sounds like fun, Sasami. Let's do it." With that, Misao stood and slowly strolled in the direction of her apartment. Sasami watched her friend leave, then felt a familiar weight on her shoulder. Turning her head, Sasami saw Ryo-Ohki watching Misao leave. "Ryo-Ohki, do you think Misao is gonna be okay?" "Of course Sasami. She's a lot stronger than she lets on. Don't worry about her, she'll be just fine." Sasami turned to go play on the swings as Ryo-Ohki hopped off her shoulder. As he did, he noticed a familiar looking bird flying off in the direction of his master's friend. "I know that bird... It always appears when..." Ryo-Ohki turned to warn Sasami, but by then it was too late. The explosion took out half the park. Sasami was tossed a good three yards by the shock wave. Fortunately, she only had a few scrapes and bruises, damaging mostly her pride. As the smoke cleared from the debris, she saw several unfamiliar shapes before her. A gaggle of golemish Yoummas stood gathered around a gray clad general. Before the monsters could move in for the kill, Ryo-Ohki yelled from behind our bluish heroine. "Sasami, use the baton!" Sasami nodded and in moments, the air reverberated with the call of "Pretty Mutation; Magical Recall!" The gathered villains stood for a moment and watched the standard light show that seemingly accompanied every magical transformation. In moments, the metamorphosis was complete and the Magical Girl Pretty Sammy stood ready for battle. Meanwhile, Ryo-Ohki had been thrown by the blast into a seemingly innocent clump of bushes. 'I should be safe here. I just hope Sammy can hold them off...' Sammy was a bit too distracted by the villains in front of her to notice that her sidekick was nowhere to be found. "How dare you destroy this park! Lots of children come here to play every day and now you've taken that from them. Now it's time for me to show you the errors of your ways!" "I don't think so, Cherrie!" The voice sent a shiver up Sammy's spine. She knew it all too well. In the smoke from the rubble stood an all-too-familiar silhouette. "You've got me to deal with too, so don't get too cocky, Sammy old girl!" "Misa. I should have known you'd be involved in this. If you're looking for a fight, then you've found it. Here comes real magical girl action, straight at you!" With that, Sammy charged the group of monsters, all the while wondering how her day could have gotten so bad so fast. ** NOW, IN THE RELATIVE SENSE OF THE WORD ** Across the great plain of reality, many cosmic beings have spent the majority of their time watching and observing mankind in all of its stupidity. Most of the time these beings made these observations out of pure boredom, and seeing as how nothing else was ever happening, most cosmic beings followed the affairs of humans with some half-hearted interest. Today however, several beings were quite enthralled in the proceedings of the day. "That... could have gone better." The speaker, Queen Serenity, was gazing into the magical pool with her newfound comrades. Her friends however, were a bit too distracted to answer, seeing as how both were on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Tsunami was the first to find her voice. "What's done is done... we'll just have to hope for the best, that's all." Seira, who had until this point remained silent, spoke up to agree. "I agree. Even though this isn't exactly what I had in mind, I believe that this meeting, even though a bit... hasty, will prove for the best." The others nodded in agreement as the little nun looked into the pool once more. "Yes indeed, even though the situation is awkward now, I believe that He will put events on their proper course." Tsunami looked to the child with hope in her eyes. "Yes, you're right Seira. And I want to apologize for doubting your avatar earlier. If it hadn't been for her, Sasami might have..." Serenity saw that her friend was close to tears and decided to jump in while the jumping was good. "Yes, thank you Seira. I believe that with the three of them working together, this Evil can be averted. Yes my friends, I do believe that in the grand course of things, we are saved." ** YET AGAIN ITS NOW, IN THE RELATIVE SENSE OF THE WORD... ** "We're screwed." The speaker was Queen Beryl, Negaverse ruler and queen of all evil. Also, at this point she was sweat dropping profusely. The three Queens of Evil were currently gathered around a large, evil-looking pool of black liquid. Moments before, the pool had been filled with the images of a battle that, by any evil standard, hadn't gone all that great. While Beryl was angered, she was relatively calm. Ramia, the other Queen of Evil, was royally pissed. "I don't believe this! How could those idiots have lost?! This was a perfectly planned operation, right down to the last detail! This was all your fault, Promethium!" Ramia pointed an accusing finger at the voidish body of the metallic mistress. Queen Promethium simply shrugged and gestured to the pool. Instantly, the blackness was replaced with the image of a pile of broken metal body parts. The Chrome queen sighed as she stared at the remains of her once prized warrior, Count Mecha. "I believe I know what our problem is, my dears. I know what went wrong with today's operation." The other two queens suddenly leaned forward in interest, waiting for this little nugget of wisdom. "The problem, my dear queens, is that we are lousy when it comes to tacticians." The other two queens face-faulted as the dark queen continued. "Worry not, my dears. I have been planning ahead and I believe that I have found a being that can save us from our own lousy strategies. I had to hunt the dimensional rifts and scour the seas of time to find a mind this devious, this cunning. Best of all, he's so pathetically shallow and evil-hearted ant he'll gladly help us. Plus he comes complete with an army." Beryl, knowing the joys of dragging out a trump card, kept silent as Ramia begged Promethium to tell her who their new helper was. "Well, spit it out, Queenie! Just who is this Great Military Leader?" "One who knows the true meaning of the word, conquest!" Promethium turned to face the shadows behind her, then smiled her trademark wickedly cold smile. From the shadows emerged a well-dressed young man who appeared to be around the age of seventeen. He was thin with short black hair that he appeared to have just run a comb through. The most noticeable feature about him however, was his demonic looking smile. Promethium chose this moment to make her introductions. "My dear comrades, may I present Mr. Katsuhiko Jinnai." ** AND ON A TOTALLY UNRELATED NOTE... ** Somewhere in the Great Palace of Time, a woman with long green hair and a sailor's fuku who had been watching the recent proceedings screamed out, "D'OU!" *** Hi folks! I probably should have put more into this chapter, but it's late and boy o boy I'm lazy. I'm sorry for being pretty lax with my postings, but after this I hope to get back to my usual speed. POP QUIZ: What gem is on the end of Meimi's staff in the series? BONUS: What is the name of the series Meimi is from? Pretty Sammy, Misao, Sasami, Pixy Misa, Ryo-Ohki, Rumia, Ramia and Tsunami all belong to Pioneer and AIC. Promethium and Count Mecha belong to Vis Video and Leiji Matsumoto. I have no friggin clue who Meimi belongs to, but I hope they don't sue. Sailor Moon, Queen Serenity, Ms. Haruna, Tsukino Usagi and whomever else I may have forgotten belong to Naoko Takeuchi. All C&C should be thrown towards BGlanders@aol.com PS: K'th, stay safe out there.