Chapter 4 - Episode 3: Bring on the Pain

SAILOR MOON P
Episode 3: Bring on the Pain

“JENNIFER!” Olivia cried from the bottom of the stairs. “Hurry Up! We’re gonna be LATE!”
“I’m hurrying! I’m sorry!” Her sister, Jennifer answered as she barreled down the stairs, duffel bag in hand. The hazel-eyed brunette jumped the last three steps and crashed into her younger sibling. They both ended up on the floor, Jennifer on top, and Olivia underneath, her long blonde hair spread out under her like a shag carpet.
Their father, Mr. Miles walked into the room and a look of amusement struck his face. “Well, this is new.” The two girls looked up from the floor. “Is this what you two consider hurrying?”
The two of them made no reply. Their large black and white dog, Gabriel, came over and started licking Olivia in the face, his tail wagging. “Ugh! Jennifer! Get off! The dog is attacking me!”
Jennifer shoved herself up and Olivia did the same, struggling to keep the dog at bay. Their mother called impatiently from the kitchen, dressed in exercise clothes. “Come on, girls! Hurry it up! You’re going to be late and I want to work out.”
“I’m coming already, I’m sorry.” Jennifer huffed. She passed up her mother and headed into the garage. Olivia followed and Mrs. Miles came last, closing the door behind her. The three of them got in their beige-colored van. The garage door opened and the vehicle pulled out and took off down the street. Mrs. Miles looked in the rear-view mirror at Olivia as they drove. “Do you have all the homework you need done taken care of?”
“Yes, Mom.” Olivia answered.
“What about that science project you were working so hard on last night?”
“Mrs. House extended the due-date to Monday,” The blonde answered, “I’ll do it on Sunday.”
“Okay,” her mother said, skeptically, “what about that paper you had to write tonight?”
“Mrs. House let us work on them in class and I got most of it done. I can finish it when we get home after Sports Club.” Olivia answered.
To this, her mother raised her eyebrows again. “If you say so. I mean, you’ve said that before and then worked all night trying to get it done.”
“No, this time I’m sure.” Olivia said, rolling her eyes. “I only have one more paragraph to write! I can do it in thirty minutes, maybe.”
“Whatever you say.” She looked to her other daughter. “What about you, Jennifer? Any homework?”
“Nope,” she answered, “it was test day in math. That’s the only class I ever have homework in.” Jennifer opened a notebook on her lap and started writing. Olivia had brought a book to read, but she wasn’t in the mood, so she stared out the window and listened to the radio. The news was on, and a man was speaking.
“Police are still trying to figure out what happened at the Canon Elementary School on the southern edge of Tenth Street last night. It appears that a foreign threat invaded and held captive up to one hundred civilians during a children’s music recital. Witnesses report that the legendary Sailor Soldiers rescued the hostages and subdued the villain. The minds behind this puzzling crime, however, are still at large. Police encourage Tenth Street residents to be on the lookout for a tall, dark male with long light-colored hair, dressed in black.”
“Hey, we were there!” Jennifer said. “That was sure weird, wasn’t it.”
“I don’t know what that was.” Her mother admitted. “I’m just glad no one got hurt. I hope they find that caped man soon before he attacks again.”
Olivia looked at her family. They had been captives in the crowd when Malachite and his evil Sailor Soldier Porrima had captured them. Olivia, in the form of Sailor Polaris and the other Sailor Soldiers had managed to solve the crisis before there was any real damage done, but somehow she knew that it was not enough. ‘They won’t find Malachite.’ She thought. ‘He’s going to attack again, and he’s going to keep attacking until he finds what he’s looking for.’ She remembered what she’d learned from the other Soldiers last night after the battle. Malachite worked for the Negaverse, which was a power-hungry negative universe that wanted to take over the world. It seemed sort of literary to her. Nearly every evil villain in every cartoon or book wanted to take over the world. The only thing about the Negaverse was that they were for real, and that she and her friends were the only force that could stand up against them. She stared as the cars zoomed by her window. ‘Malachite’s going to attack sometime. The question is when and where. Man, I thought homework was a problem, but now the fate of the world rests on my shoulders! Geez.’

* * *

Malachite threw the radio against the brick wall. The mechanism broke into several pieces when it hit, and the voice of the newscaster stopped speaking. Garth stared, indifferently at the remains of the machine as it hit the concrete floor. “GAA!” Malachite raged and turned to the navy-blue cat sitting in the alley with him. “Look what you’ve done now, cat! Now the whole city’s looking for us!”
“Please, please,” Garth said as he began to groom himself, “General, don’t blow things out of proportion.”
“Out of proportion!? Are you INSANE!?” Malachite cried, glaring at the cat. “This mission was my last chance! Now I’m partnered with a stupid cat who disobeys orders and goes off looking for these Crystal Fractures while we’re supposed to be looking for rainbow crystals! Queen Beryl will not approve of this hogwash, I’m finished for sure if she ever finds out. Now, the whole blasted city is looking for me! There’s no blowing this out of proportion, this is a monstrous problem already! Ugnh, I wish Zoicite was assigned this job instead of me! She was in charge of all the other rainbow crystals, why not this one!?”
“Shut up, would you, maggot?” Garth hissed. “I have a handle on this. You are driving yourself crazy over nothing! Now stop calling attention to yourself and listen to what I have to say.”
Malachite had a vein protruding from his forehead, but obeyed anyway. This cat was supposed to be teaching him how to do his job. The disgrace was nearly too much for him to bear. “grrr... So what do we do next.”
“What do you think we are going to do, General? You are supposed to be learning from me during this ordeal, we should start now.”
“We can’t go back to the Negaverse…Beryl will kill me for sure.” Malachite said, a bad taste growing in his mouth.
“Correct enough.” Garth said, his glowing yellow eyes glistened. “We will stay on Earth, and we will attack again. We need to find the three crystal fractures, and we will keep looking until we do. Follow.” Garth headed around the corner of the brick building and out onto the sidewalk.
“Wha? Wait! Now there are three of them?!” Malachite gawked. Quickly he gained his composure and followed the cat out into the sunlight. “What aren’t you telling me, cat!? I deserve to know what you have up your sleeve.”
“Watch and learn.” Garth said. “Isn’t that what you’re supposed to be doing, General?” A portal of black emptiness opened before them and Garth stepped through. “Come, we will attack again as soon as possible.” Malachite hung his head, his silvery-white hair falling over his long face. His eyes were steely. Without a word, he followed the cat through the portal and it sealed behind them, leaving the sidewalk deserted.

* * *

The van pulled into one of the parking spaces at the Tenth Street Recreation Complex, nicknamed the ‘Rec Center’. The building was large and came equipped with a weight room, a basketball court, a track, two pools, one indoor and one outdoor, a game room and meeting rooms. The Mileses climbed out of the car, grabbed their duffels, and headed up the walk. Climbing the stairs and entering the building, they found themselves in a tall-ceilinged hallway. The walls were painted white, and the tiles on the floor had random black or blue spots in them. There were benches and plants along the wall to their left, and several meeting rooms along the wall to the right. The air was heavy with the smell of chlorine from the pool, and the radio was playing on speakers overhead. After a short time of walking, they neared the front desk. It was 3 o’clock, and the shift was changing as they approached. A young woman opened a small door, stepped out from behind the desk, and passed them as they approached. The new person behind the desk was a tall man of 20, with short black hair, and blue eyes. He was busy getting himself situated at the computer when Mrs. Miles approached.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” he said, when he realized that they were waiting on him. He rubbed the back of his neck and grinned. Olivia and Jennifer’s eyes widened. “I just got here, uh, okay.” He made sure the computer was set and then turned his full attention to the trio. “Ahem, can I help you?”
“Yeah,” Mrs. Miles took out the three membership cards belonging to each member of their party and gave them to the young man to scan. Her daughters watched dreamily as he scanned them into the computer and gave them back. Olivia looked and saw that the name on his ID tag was Darien Chiba.
Darien smiled. “Have a nice time.”
“Thank you.” Mrs. Miles nodded and the pack headed down the main stairwell next to the cylindrical elevator shaft. Olivia and Jennifer stole glimpses over their shoulders to look at Darien. Their mother spoke again, “well, he certainly was a pleasant young man. That’s the kind of boy you girls should date when you get old enough.”
“Let’s start now.” Jennifer sighed. “He was fine.”
“Did you see that his name was Darien!?” Olivia added. “Man, he was cute!”
“I’ll say!”
When they got to the bottom of the stairs, they were in a sitting room. The room was really the hallway leading from the basketball court on the left, to the pool on the right. There was another set of stairs leading up to the weight room and track, and a hallway that stretched back around the corner of the stairs that lead to the locker rooms. Jennifer and Olivia stayed down at the base of the stairs and their mother headed up to the weight room. “I’ll be back for you two in a couple hours, okay?”
“Okay, Mom.”
“Have fun.” With that, she disappeared up the stairs. Jennifer and Olivia sat on one of the bright red couches in the sitting room and waited for the rest of the Sports Club to show up. As they were sitting, a girl with red hair that went down to the center of her back, sharp brown eyes and a mean look on her face came out of the basketball court doors with what looked like her coach, who had a basketball under his arm.
“Come on, Pam, you can’t work yourself so hard.” Her coach was saying. Pam, her mangled red hair flying, turned on him and started poking him in the chest.
“I’ll work until I’m good! I’m not good enough for the finals yet and I’m not going to stop working until I am!”
“But Pam! The finals aren’t for months!” The man cried.
“All the more reason for me to work hard now!” Pam insisted, storming off toward the locker rooms.
Her coach was persistent. “But you’ve already been here five hours! The team hasn’t even gotten to state yet!”
“Ten Minute break and then back to the court!” She cried from around the corner. They heard the girl’s locker room door slam and the coach hung his head.
The two girls could hear him muttering to himself as he headed down the hall. “She works too hard, she’ll never be good enough in her eyes.” He sighed, “we’ll be here all day.”
“Well,” Olivia said, trying to start conversation. “She seemed stubborn.”
“Yeah,” Jennifer agreed. “I wonder if she plays well.”
“Wonder!?” Olivia said, disbelieving that Jennifer thought for even a minute that that Pam girl was bad at basketball.
“Heh, I suppose you’re right,” Jennifer nodded, “she wouldn’t be so dedicated to the sport if she wasn’t any good at it.”
Just then, the body of the Sports Club came down the stairs. Mina, an excitable blue-eyed blonde with a big red bow in her hair ran down first. “Olivia! Jennifer!” She stopped in front of them, her large eyes sparkling. “Did you see that super-hot guy behind that desk!? OH my GOSH! He was HOT!”
“Yeah, yeah! Wasn’t he!?” The two of them agreed.
“Who? Darien?” Serena asked, coming up behind Mina with an especially sour look on her face. “That bully!? No way.”
“Bully?” Olivia asked, disbelieving.
“Oh, Serena doesn’t like him just because he teases her hair.” Raye said, narrowing her violet eyes and elbowing the blonde in the ribs. Olivia giggled as Serena turned on Raye like an angry dog. She could see how her hair was a target for ridicule. She wore it up in two buns on top of her head with long pigtails coming out the back of them.
Once Olivia thought about it, it didn’t surprise her that Darien was a teaser. It was very easy to imagine him, six feet tall, his blue eyes tearing from laughter as he poked fun at her. She could nearly hear his voice. “Why don’t you try a stepstool, munchkin!?” Suddenly, her imagination had gone too far. She stopped to think. How was she imagining all these details about a guy she just met? They were more than just imagination, they were too vivid. Could they be something like memories? And where’d the munchkin crack come from? There was also a weird feeling. It was a warm, trembling feeling, like the feeling she got when Tuxedo Mask had touched her cheek and she had looked into his blue eyes for the first time. Blue eyes?
The girls were laughing and she came back to reality, but the warm feeling remained as a reminder of the voyage she had just taken to the back of her mind. Lita and Amy had just run up and joined the conversation. Lita, her long brown ponytail whipping about behind her, was looking very much like Mina did when she’d come down the stairs. The first thing out of the brunette’s mouth was; “Whoa! Did you see that hunk of a man working behind that desk!?” She grinned and closed her green eyes dreamily. “Oh! He looked just like that upper classman from my old school! Oh boy!”
Amy, an intellectual with both blue eyes and hair, analyzed the situation and asked. “Wasn’t that Darien? The guy who intercepts and bugs Serena everyday on the way home from school?”
“AMY!” Serena turned and snapped. “I just got us off that subject!”
Then, breaking up any impending conflict, the last member of the Sports Club raced down the stairs. She was of average height with green eyes and a great mass of dark black-brown hair. She had it pulled into a loose braid, which swung back and forth as she approached. “Jenn! Guys!”
“Courtney!” Jennifer sighed. “You’re late again!”
“I know, I’m sorry, my grandma had to bring me from my mom’s.” Courtney explained, dropping her duffel. “But hey, I made it didn’t I?”
“True enough.” Olivia admitted. The eight of them stood there for a second until Olivia spoke again. “So, what do we do first?”
“Um, I donno.” Raye said with a shrug. “What’d we do last time?”
“Volleyball!” Mina said with a grin. Mina Aino was the master of volleyball.
“I think we should go swimming!” Serena cried.
The others’ eyes brightened. “That’s a great idea!” They all took up their stuff and raced for the girls’ locker room to change. The hall leading to the locker rooms extended past the room doors and down to a dining area with tables and chairs. The snack bar was just out of view around the corner. Serena nearly headed down this hall by mistake, but Raye caught her by the collar and yanked her back.
“Come on, dufus, don’t you know where the bathrooms are!?”
“But I’m hungry!” Serena whined.
“You shouldn’t eat until thirty minutes after you get in the pool.” Mina said, smartly.
“Actually, it’s the other way around.” Amy corrected. “You shouldn’t get in the pool until thirty minutes after you’ve eaten.”
“Well, whatever.” Mina said, then resumed her reprimanding tone with Serena. “If you do, your arms and legs will tie in knots!”
Amy had to correct her a second time. “Actually the worst you’d get is a cramp. Having your limbs tie into knots is a physical impossibility.”
“Come on, let’s just change and get in that pool!” Lita interrupted. “I’ve heard the pool here is really great with lots of stuff to do!” Having said that, the mass of chattering girls moved into the bathroom. Once inside, their laughter echoed loudly off the metal lockers and tile floor, causing the noise to multiply in volume.
Unfortunately, they were not the only ones in the room. The tough basketball player Jennifer and Olivia had seen earlier was staring at herself in the large mirror where girls would normally do their hair. Pam looked even worse once the Sports Club had entered, her red hair was fraying in strange places, and her brown eyes were sparking furiously. Less than a second passed before she reacted. “Would you all SHUT UP!?”
They throng was suddenly silent, frozen in various positions in front of their lockers. They stood staring, perplexed, at the athlete. Pam wasn’t any kinder when she spoke again, which would be better defined as a roar. “I’m trying to CONCENTRATE here! Can’t you see that I need to stay focused!?! I want the lot of you to stay QUIET!!!” She stomped around the mirror-island and into one of the bathroom stalls on the other side of the room, slamming the door.
“Whoa,” Lita gawked, still standing with her shirt half over her head. “Let’s not mess with her.”
“Fine by me.” Courtney agreed.
“Let’s just change clothes and leave her alone. Serena said, glancing with her big blue eyes at the stalls where Pam still was fuming. “We’d better let her concentrate. Whatever she’s worried about, it must be important.”
“Yeah, better safe than sorry.” Raye added. “She might charge if provoked.” They changed as quickly as possible into their swimsuits and moved out the back of the locker room, past the showers. At the end of the row of shower stalls, there was a door leading directly to the indoor pool, and once through that door, talking began again. The focus of conversation was mainly all the perks laid before them as part of this pool;
“Wow!” Mina ooo-ed. “Look at that slide!”
“Hey!” Raye ahh-ed. “There’s a hot tub!”
Suddenly all eyes fell on the feature at the center of the room and all the voices joined together in a chorus of “LAZY RIVER!” The eight of them stormed into the water and waded as fast as they could to the snake-like waterway. Raye and Serena were fighting for the lead. Serena grabbed a chunk of Raye’s black hair, and pulled her under the water. Coming up again, Raye tackled Serena around the waist and dunked her as well. In all the melee, Olivia and Courtney squeezed by and took the lead.
“Wahoo!” The two girls cried. They dove face-first into the current and rode, toppling over each other down the path. Raye and Serena watched them go, dumbfounded.
“This should be a lesson to you two.” Amy said, passing them in her light-blue one piece. “It is best not to fight, or you both might end up losing.”
“Amy, don’t start.” Raye warned, leaping into the river.
“Raye! No fair!” Serena cried. Lita, Mina, and Jennifer waded past, running in slow motion and splashing aside the waist-high water. Serena realized that she was the only one left, and bounded in after them. “Guys! Wait for me!”
The river took a short horseshoe bend and spit Olivia and Courtney out just as Serena was heading in, they followed the current back around the corner and headed into the entrance again for another go-around. “Hey Serena! Took you long enough!”
Serena fumed as they lapped her. “You guys think you’re so funny!”
The lazy river was relatively short and rather weak. The eight girls soon grew tired of the whole thing after about five times around. Soon they were all standing together in the water. “So where next?”
“I wanna go down that slide!” Courtney cried, jumping up and down and splashing in the process.
“I’ll come!” Jennifer agreed.
Raye looked, knowingly to Olivia, Amy, Mina, and Lita. “I want to relax a little, why don’t we all go sit in the hot tub?”
“But I want to go down the slide!” Serena whined.
Mina grabbed her ear and began to tow her toward the steps. “We can do that after we get in the hot tub!”
“Oh! Okay okay! Let go!”
“You guys go ahead down the slide!” Olivia told Courtney and Jennifer. “You can join us in the hot tub when you get back, and then we’ll all go down.”
“Okay.” Courtney agreed. She and Jennifer bounded off.
The remaining six climbed into the hot tub and began to talk. This was a good time for them to discuss serious Sailor Soldier matters, because the only two non-soldier members of the club had gone. They all moved to a corner of the tub and began a quick meeting. Raye asked first. “So what happened last night?”
“Yes, who was that girl with the violin?” Amy added.
Raye and Amy had been stuck with the rest of the crowd when the Negaverse had attacked Olivia’s Strings Concert the night before. Sailors Moon, Venus, and Jupiter, along with herself were left to try and finish off the monster, which was a girl Olivia knew from class who had been turned into a Dark Sailor Soldier. Olivia was the one who answered Amy’s question. “Her name is Lynn. I know her from school.”
“And what does she have to do with the Negaverse?” Lita asked.
“Nothing.” Olivia answered, shaking her blonde head, which was now sopping wet and a dark yellow-bronzeish color. “She’s just a normal kid from my grade. I’ve seen her in the halls before. She’s quiet.”
“Did you see her before the concert?” Raye asked.
“Yeah, she’s a cello, so she sat over by me when we were tuning up.” Olivia answered. “She seemed to be having trouble playing her instrument.”
“What kind of trouble?” Serena asked, out of pure curiosity.
“You know, she couldn’t get her notes right, she kept dropping her bow, stuff like that.” Olivia explained. “Normal stuff, you guys all heard her playing at the concert.”
“Oh, was she the one who hit that really sour note that screwed everyone up?” Mina asked.
Olivia nodded.
Lita looked serious and asked. “Did she say anything strange when you were around her?”
“Hmm.” Olivia thought a second, trying to remember the details of the night before. She had been setting up her bass, and Lynn was in front of her trying to self-tune her cello. She wasn’t able to do it, and got aggravated. Then she said something that Olivia had thought was sort of unusual. What was it? “It was something like ‘Why can’t I ever get it right?’ or ‘I’m not any good at this’ or something like that.’ Olivia answered. “She was putting herself down somehow.”
“Hmm, that seems pretty normal.” Raye said, thinking. “I can’t think of anything evil about her. Why would she be a target for Malachite?”
“Do you remember what Tuxedo Mask said?” Serena added. “He said that Malachite was looking for more Rainbow Crystals.”
“Rainbow Crystals?” Olivia asked. “Wait, I missed something.”
“You missed a big something.” Lita proceeded to explain. “Zoicite, another general, was looking for the Rainbow Crystals before. Both she and Tuxedo Mask were trying to find them, and so we were trying too. We managed to get a couple, but Tuxedo Mask and the Negaverse stole them, and to make a long story short, they found seven Rainbow Crystals that supposedly contained seven evil Dark Warriors or something. That’s why the Negaverse wants the crystals so badly, and that’s why they are looking for this last one.”
“I wonder if there is more to it.” Amy said, staring at the foam on the water. “I mean, there are only seven colors in the rainbow; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. I can’t imagine what color crystal is missing.”
Lita looked up and then quickly waved for everyone’s attention. “Whoa, break up! The other two are coming!”
Jennifer and Courtney walked over, laughing. Jennifer climbed into the hot tub with the six others. “Wow! That was great! You’ve all got to try that!”
“Yeah!” Courtney agreed, grinning. “Hey, guys, guess what happened to me at school today!?”

* * *

Another black-hole portal opened and let Garth and Malachite out by an empty outdoor swimming pool. Malachite looked cynically around. “First a grade school, now a kiddie pool. Somehow I’m not surprised.”
“Silence!” Garth hissed, menacingly. “I am growing tired of your repugnance. You seem to forget that I know what I am doing. This place reeks with emptiness. There is a good target here.”
“You can smell emptiness?” Malachite asked. “I wasn’t aware that emptiness emitted an odor.”
“I’m the Midnight Cat.” Garth said, obviously. “My senses are fine-tuned to certain things. Emptiness being one of them. You will just have to trust me, because you cannot sense the smell of self-doubt and loathing like I can. Now keep close. It’s near by.” Garth padded up to a door, which would lead inside a tall brick building. He sniffed the threshold then turned to Malachite and said. “Open it.”
Malachite slitted his eyes, but obeyed. “What? Now I’m your butler? My disgrace it nearly total.”
“What? Do you expect me to pity you?” Garth asked. He made his way through the open door and slinked into the building. Malachite followed without much enthusiasm. They passed an unmanned snack bar and a row of tables before turning the corner. Down the hall, they saw the cylindrical elevator shaft with the stairwell wrapped around it, and the doors to the basketball court. The deep navy blue cat padded down this hallway and arrived at the door to the girls’ locker room. “In here.”
“There?” Malachite asked, reading the sign. “Are you positive, cat? If someone sees me in there, I’ll be caught straight off.”
“Stop being a wuss and open the door for me.” Garth snapped. Malachite looked both ways and they entered the bathroom. As they walked around the ‘s’ curve, Garth said over his shoulder. “You have enough hair, if any women come in, just turn your back and they’ll never tell that you are a man.”
“I don’t know whether to be reassured, or insulted.” Malachite replied.
There was one lady at the far end of the lockers hanging up her coat. Malachite quickly turned the corner into the bathrooms before she could see him. The area around the stalls was deserted, but he could see straight down the shower hallway to the pool-exit. Cautiously, he moved down the line after Garth, who kept sniffing and looking under the doors. Suddenly the cat stopped, and Malachite had to step over him in order to avoid squashing him.
“This stall.”
“What, now are you going to walk in on a girl while she’s on the throne!?” Malachite cried in a hoarse whisper. “I can’t believe you, you perverted cat.”
“Hush! She’s not using the ‘throne’ as you call it for its true purpose.” Garth said, trying to avoid the blunt and rather vulgar terminology. “She’s thinking. The emptiness is definitely coming from her.”
“If you say so.” Malachite said, sardonically.
Garth made no reply and proceeded to enter the stall under the door. Malachite stood outside, feeling awkward. Inside the stall, Pam was sitting on the lid of the john with her head in her hands and her mangled red hair sticking through her fingers. She saw the cat wander in under the door and jumped. “AHH! What the!?”
Garth mewed to try and calm her.
“A cat!? Who let a cat in here?! Security!!” It appeared that the woman hanging her coat had left, because there was no sound from the other side of the room. Garth decided that the gentle approach was not going to work with this one and spoke straight out.
“Quiet you snit!”
“What! I’m hearing things now!?”
“I’m not your normal cat! I’m a special cat that can talk, and if you don’t shut up I’ll call on my special cat army to smite you!”
“I-“ Pam didn’t know what to think. “I-I must be dreaming! I need to wake up! I can’t be asleep, I’ve got work to do.” She stormed out of the stall, smacking Malachite in the face with the door as she made her way to the sink. Apparently not hearing the ‘ow’ and the curses that were coming from the stall behind her, the redhead proceeded in turning on one of the sink faucets and splashing her face with cold water. Garth jumped up on the sink beside her and hissed as water splashed on his silky fur.
Pam looked up, the water dripping from face and hair. “Ack! You’re still here!”
“This isn’t a dream, snit, and I’m not going away.” Garth said, stubbornly. Then he put his plan into action and launched into his routine. “You have called for me and I’ve come to help you.”
“How’d I call for a talking cat!? I don’t need any help.”
“You called me with your heart and mind.” Garth explained, the distaste still on his tongue. “You are feeling incomplete. You are feeling empty, and are not satisfied with yourself. That is why you need my help.”
“I don’t need help from anyone!” Pam shouted. “I can do it myself.”
“It doesn’t sound like your senses worked, cat.” Malachite said, rubbing his nose. “You’ve found the wrong girl.”
“I have not!” Garth cried, then turned to Pam again, “you are just saying that to mask your shallow self-esteem. Deep inside you know that you aren’t good enough.”
“I-I-“ Garth seemed to have cut Pam to the bone, her quick wit had failed her.
Garth sneered, satisfied with the injury. “I thought so. You know that you are not good enough. You know that you will never be good enough. Not without my help.”
“Wha-What can you do to help me!?” Pam said, defensively. “What can a puny cat do to improve my game.”
“First you have to tell me what you want.” Garth said. “Tell me exactly what you want. You are broken, incomplete, empty, tell me, what would make you whole. What would make you ‘good enough’? What do you want more than anything else in the world?”
“That’s easy!” Pam said. “I want to be the best at basketball! I want to out run, out jump, out hoop, out play, anyone and anything that can come up to me! I want to take out entire NBA teams by myself. I wan to be that good!” Pam’s look of desire faded when she took a second thought and added; “but that’s impossible. No one person can be that fast.”
“That’s what you think, child.” Garth said, licking his muzzle with contempt. “That’s all you know isn’t it? Well, child, I will show you how it is done.”

* * *

An hour had passed. The clubbers had gotten out of the tub, gone down the slide a couple times, taken one last lap around the lazy river, and soon were bored. “Wow.” Mina said, ringing out her red ribbon. “With all the stuff there is to do here, you certainly can get bored fast.”
“Let’s get out.” Serena suggested. “My skin is pruning. We can find something else to do when we’re dry.”
“Okay.” The group made their way out of the pool and back into the locker rooms.
Inside, Garth had heard them approaching and had hurried Pam and Malachite into the shower stalls. All the girls saw as they entered was a flash of Malachite’s cape as he hid himself from view. Garth and Pam were in the shower across from him. Serena and the others didn’t think much of it, dismissing it as a towel or something belonging to whoever was going to use the shower. They walked, chatting past the stalls and to their lockers to change. Malachite held his breath as the passed. ‘Why is it that teenage girls always roam in packs?’
It seemed to take the Sports Club forever to get dressed and dry their hair, but in twenty minutes, everyone was packed and ready to go find other means of entertainment. “Let’s go play basketball.” Jennifer suggested with a flip of her shoulder-length brown hair. “I mean, if that mean girl isn’t there.”
“I could take her!” Lita announced, displaying her muscles. “She’s nothing.”
“Don’t get us thrown out Lita.” Mina joked. “Two wrongs don’t win a fight, you know.”
Amy’s voice; “It’s two wrongs don’t make a right, actually.”
“Yeah whatever.” Mina shrugged. There was a lot of laughing and they moved out of the room. “Let’s play basketball anyway. That means we’d have to go up to the main desk and ask that hottie for a ball!”
“Mina! Come on!” Serena whined, as the closing door muffled their laughter. Malachite let out a sigh of relief. The locker room was quiet again, but he wasn’t sure whether it was empty or not. He decided to stay in his own stall and not re-enter the hallway. That last call was a close one.
In a separate stall, Garth was trapped with Pam, separated from the rest of the room by a curtain adorned with tropical fish. “So how’re you gonna help me, cat?”
“I am going to give you that thing you want.” Garth answered. He reached into his sub-space storage pocket and produced his black-velvet bag. Undoing the knot at the top, he took out one of the transformation pens he kept inside it. He dropped it on the shower floor, then put the bag back into Z-storage.
Pam looked down at what was happening. “This’s gotta be a dream.”
“No dream.” Garth repeated. “Take this wand and it will make you everything you just told me that you wanted.”
“Since I have to be asleep,” Pam insisted, bending down and taking the pen in hand, “I’ll do what you say. I mean, cats can’t talk and pull little bags out of no where and give me pe-"“ The wand she held in her hand started to emit a black mist-like cloud from its oval-shaped headpiece. The symbol that glowed white on the black metal of the pen cap was of a basketball with a double-X running through it. Her hand loosened around the dark yellow-bronze handle, the color looked very much like Olivia’s golden hair when she had it wet. The smoke swirled into the girl’s head through every external opening. From across the hall, Malachite heard her cry. “DARK PHEKDA!”

Around Pam a bubble of bronze-yellow energy expanded. She found herself free-floating within a hemisphere of dancing black and bronze. Her clothing vanished from her body and both her skin and hair became the bizarre color that shone around her. Her eyes were closed and face expressionless as a powerful rushing wind blew her around inside the dome. Bronze-yellow ribbons of smoke shot from the walls and wrapped themselves around her body. More sprouted from the skin of the dome and seemed to nearly mummify her in tightly wrapped bronze layers. Suddenly there was a flash of golden lightning that broke the binding ribbons so that the frayed ends whipped around madly in the super strong currents. Another bolt of lightning flashed and entered her eyes, making them glow unnaturally with a bright yellow gleam. The lightning bolt raced down her limbs and blew her wrappings to pieces with the force of a small bomb. What was left on her body was the outfit of a Sailor Soldier, bronze gold on the skirt, collar, choker, and elbows, with tough boots of the same hue that buttoned with large fastens at the sides. The bows on her chest and back were black. Her chest bow was tied on by her collar and the tails of the knot hung down over her dim off-white leotard. Fully transformed, she gave a power-inspired speech in an unnaturally booming voice. “I am Sailor Phekda! I am no longer the product of effort and drive. I have the talent and ability to achieve my loftiest goals! I will use that power to aid those who gave it to me. I am devoted! I am unbeatable! I am WHOLE!”

At the last word, the dome swelled and vanished, leaving her fully transformed in the shower stall. Garth twitched his tail. “Excellent. Now, Sailor Phekda, lets show the world what you have in you…like your crystal fragment.”

* * *

Meanwhile, the Sports Club was trying to muster up enough courage to ask Darien tat the front desk for a basketball. The balls that the rec center had for playing games were kept in a cabinet behind the counter. They were stored there so that they wouldn’t get stolen. A person wanting to use basketballs, volleyballs, soccer balls, or any balls for the game room would have to ask the person on hand. Amy, Lita, Jennifer, Courtney, and Raye poked their heads out of the curving stairwell to spy on the young employee as he went innocently about his work.
“How are we supposed to get a ball if he’s there?” Jennifer asked, staring with her hazel-green eyes.
“Just go up and ask him!” Raye answered, remaining partly hidden behind the elevator shaft.
“What!?! I’m not going up there!” Jennifer cried in a hoarse whisper.
“You know I’d go…but…” Courtney said, her straight forwardness failing her.
“”I’m not going to talk to him!” Ray said. “My hair is all chlorine-y! I could never speak to him again if he saw me like this!”
“It’s awful childish for us to be afraid.” Amy said.
“Then you go ask him.” Lita snapped.
“What!?! Me!?”
Just then, the elevator doors opened next to the five girl’s heads and three blondes came rushing out. Mina was hurriedly pulling Serena and Olivia along by the wrists. Serena was looking mulish and Olivia was looking horrified. Mina was in an image of star-struck determination. She wheeled the other two up to the counter and stopped them right in front of Darien. Olivia looked pathetically over her shoulder, Mina still attached to her wrist.
Darien saw Mina, who’d dried her big red bow in the hand-dryer and now wore it, slightly wrinkled in her hair. “Hi, can I help you?”
“Um, yeah!” Mina answered. “We are three vibrant young women looking for romance!” Serena let her head fall into the palm of her free hand. Mina continued without hesitation. “And we would like a basketball!”
“Um, okay,” Darien said, apparently amused by these three girls, “is that true, Dumpling-head?”
“Shut up! Darien!” Serena cried. “My hair does not look like dumplings!”
Darien’s dark eyebrows shot up. Olivia took a second look, finding the action oddly familiar. The man let out a sardonic laugh that sounded remarkably the same as Olivia’s imagination had thought it would. “What? Do you prefer meatballs?”
Raye sniggered next to Jennifer’s ear.
Serena cast a steel glance over to stairs. “Just give us the basketball already.”
“Alright, whatever you say, Dumpling.” Darien complied. He reached under the desk and brought out the ball. Serena reached for it, but he tossed it to his other hand and she missed. He gave the ball to quiet little Olivia on the other side of Mina. “There you go.”
Olivia’s cheeks reddened. Mina seemed a little cross that he hadn’t noticed her and yanked the two of them away again. “Thanks.” The blondes met up with the other girls by the stairs and they headed down to the basketball courts.
Darien called after them as they disappeared. “Have fun, girls! Find Romance!”
“Yeah, right.” Mina sighed. The other girls laughed and punched her in the shoulders.
“Mina! You’re amazing!” Jennifer cried. “How’d you do that!?”
Lita gave Mina a sidewinder hug. “Mina knows no fear.”
“That’s me!” Mina chirped, happy with the attention. “Mina Aino! Warrior Princess for Love and Justice!”
They all rounded the corner of the stairs and walked through the doors. The basketball court was deserted and they decided to start a half-court game on the hoop nearest the door.
“Okay, whose teams?” Jennifer asked.
“What!?” Amy asked, amazed at the grammar.
“I’m captain!” Raye cried.
“Me too!” Serena said, anxious for her fair share of the glory.
“Serena, who’d want to be on your team?” Raye asked, cynically.
Serena looked indignant. “What do you know, Raye? People will be fighting to be on my team because I’m cooler, nicer, and prettier than you, so blah!”
“Oh yeah!?”
“Heh heh! Guys, let’s just play already!” Lita interrupted. Soon the teams were chosen. It was Lita, Courtney, and Jennifer with Raye (who’d insisted on picking first) and Mina, Amy, and Olivia with Serena. The game began. Lita, who was by far the best player on the team being tall, strong, and fast, had the ball first. She weaved between Serena and Mina and passed the ball to Raye who shot and missed. Amy had the ball. She had a hard time dribbling at first, so she passed it to Olivia who took a pot shot at the basket. The ball rounded the rim then shot out and across the room. Jennifer and Courtney both ran for it.
“Guys!” Olivia called after them. “What’re you doing!? You’re both on the same team!”
Suddenly, the doors down on the other side of the courts where Jennifer and Courtney were fighting over the basketball, flew open and slammed against the wall. In the doorway stood a Sailor Soldier with scraggly red hair, and a basketball in hand. Everyone froze, stunned. Courtney dropped their basketball, with Jennifer’s arm still reaching around her back. Sailor Phekda, for that was who she was, began to pound her ball onto the hardwood floor and said. “Who thinks they can take me?”
“The Negaverse!” Amy gasped. Olivia’s eyes shot over to the two brunettes across the room. The six of them couldn’t let the two non-soldiers see them transform. A deep navy blue cat with a bright orange inverted moon on his forehead slinked into the room, his eyes glowing.
“Phekda! Go on and show them how good your game is.”
“Another- I mean a talking cat!” Serena gawked. “Can that be!?”
“He doesn’t look like a good friend of Luna’s.” Raye said, referring to the talking cat that Serena owned. “Is he the reason that there are these Sailor Soldiers appearing?”
Sailor Phekda began to run across the court, dribbling her ball. The evil power that had filled the empty spot in her mind was telling her that these girls wanted to play a game. “Come on! Bring it on! Bring on the Pain!”
“Run!” Lita cried. Everyone took off in the direction of the doors. Jennifer and Courtney made their way through the doors at their end. With the two innocents sufficiently separated from the soldiers, Serena, Mina, Amy, Lita, Raye, and Olivia were safe to transform.
“MARS POWER!”
“MERCURY POWER!”
“JUPITER POWER!”
“VENUS POWER!”
“POLARIS POWER!”
“MOON PRISM POWER!”

With the girls each saying their own magic words with their own magic wands in hand triggered a huge explosion of magic. Each girl entered her own magic transformation domes. Mars’s was red with a wildfire raging inside. Her violet eyes stood strong in the wave of red that overtook her skin. Fire swirled in tightly and she was dressed in her Sailor uniform. Her skirt was red, along with her collar and choker. Her bow on her chest was purple like her eyes, and the bow on her skirt was red to match the rest of her outfit. She wore red high-heels, and with one last swirl of her bushy black hair, she posed.
Amy was surrounded with a bubble of blue. Water came out of her pen cap and she painted it all over her body. When the currents inside the dome swelled, the bubbles left her with a blue outfit adorned with light blue bows on her chest and back. She wore knee-high blue boots with a light blue stripe at the top. Knees together, she posed.
Lita danced inside a green hemisphere wherein she was the center of a lightning storm. Streaks of electricity bent and ran around her and her skin melted into the background of green. The electricity stood out in rings, then collapsed, causing a green Sailor Suit to appear. Both bows were pink, and her boots laced up with green laces. Another flash of lightning and she posed.
Mina was in a sea of orange. The golden, star covered magic banner that swirled around her made her hair move as if a great wind had rushed up her legs. When the stars broke from the ribbon and condensed, she was left wearing her soldier’s uniform of orange with a blue bow in front, a yellow bow in back, and a red one in her hair. She turned and swirled, her great mass of blonde hair billowing out behind her, and posed as well.
Polaris was in an icy pale blue hemisphere. Ice crystals flew about her and near-freezing water came down around her. They turned and twisted around her ankles, forming a whirlpool that slowly worked its way up her legs. Suddenly, In one great gush, the water shot up and froze her with her back turned in a glass-like column. The ice cracked and shattered leaving her dressed for the crisis in a pale-blue uniform. She had a pink bow on her chest and a blue one in her hair, but no bow on her back. Her boots were blue like her outfit, with a white diamond shape at the point under her knee. Hair behind her and one leg held up, she posed.
Serena was within her pink bubble. Ribbons came from her magic brooch and covered her where her suit would be. In a second, it was there. The ribbons turned into the elements of her uniform. Her blue skirt and collar, also her red boots, bow and choker. She posed and came out of her transformation as well.

With their poses, the soldiers had ended their transformations and stood ready for the fight. They were all waiting for Sailor Moon, who took the longest. When she was done, they stood for a second, making sure they were ready to go. Sailor Polaris, who was Olivia spoke. “Hey, that was better, we had all of us here, and we all got done almost at the same time. Sailor Moon needs a little work, but before we know it, this will be an instant thing.”
“Don’t mess with things you don’t understand,” Sailor Venus said, patting Polaris on the head. The youngest soldier pouted. Venus threw her fist into the air. “Now lets go kick some Negaverse Butt!” Using that as a battle cry, the whole mass of Sailor Soldiers stormed back into the basketball court. Phekda was waiting for them.
“Are you ready for the game of your lives?”
“We aren’t here to play games!” Sailor Moon announced. “We are here to right wrongs and triumph over evil! We are fighters for love and justice! Pretty Sailor Soldiers in – “
“ – in a Sailor Suit blahdy blahdy blah.” Malachite finished from where he stood, leaning against the wall. “We know.”
“What are you doing here, Malachite!?” Sailor Mars challenged.
“Don’t talk to me.” Malachite said, indifferently. “It’s his plan, I’m just here to displace air.” Garth turned to him and scowled.
“What?” Sailor Moon was confused.
Garth crouched and twitched his tail again. “Fine, if it’s up to me, then I’ll do the talking.” Malachite blew some of his white hair out of his face. “I am Garth, the Midnight Cat! And the only way that you can save this girl is to play her game until her body rejects her power.”
“Why are you doing this?” Sailor Jupiter demanded
“Yeah,” Polaris added, less formally, “what’s the point?”
“Silence!” Garth hissed. “Humans are maggots! They know nothing!”
Polaris took his remark offensively “Hey!”
“Stop this stalling!” Sailor Phekda ordered, dribbling through her legs. “Let’s play some basketball!” She took off toward the net, dribbling and running inconceivably fast.
“Stop her!” Sailor Mercury cried, “if we hold her down, then Sailor Moon can use Moon Healing on her.”
“On it!” Jupiter and Mars said. They ran to intercept Phekda as she ran. The dark soldier, however, weaved between them with relative ease. She dribbled and dodged, then jumped as high as the backboard and dunked the ball in with her whole arms. The enchanted basketball that was her tool bounced off the floor and clubbed Mercury in the back of the head, knocking her over. Sailor Venus ran over to her as the ball flew across the room to club Sailor Moon. After getting her in the stomach and flooring her, the ball went to Sailors Mars, Jupiter, and Polaris and did the same thing. When it flew back to Venus, she sent it up into the air with her best set.
“You are playing the wrong game.” Phekda said, landing.
Venus retaliated with her Sailor Power. “Crescent, BEAM!” Pointing her finger at Phekda, she shot a laser aimed at her heart. It didn’t take much for the super-human reflexes of the Dark Soldier to dodge it. The basketball came down from the rafters and hit Venus square in the head. She fell to the side, clutching her skull. Phekda began to laugh evilly.
“You all are nothing!”
“Do you call that good sportsmanship!?”
Malachite looked up and his face became laden with even more disgust. “Great, it’s that Tuxedo Mask.”
Tuxedo Mask had appeared on the track, which entered the room from the weight room and followed the court wall all the way back to the weight room on the other side. He stood on the metal railing made to keep people from falling off. “What kind of an athlete wins by taking out all the players on the other team? You are a disgrace to your sport. I don’t see why you were ever targeted for having a Rainbow Crystal.”
“What, now do you want to play too?” Sailor Phekda asked, slightly peeved at Tuxedo Mask’s attack on her sportsmanship. She hurled her evil basketball in his direction. It flew super fast right at his face, and in an effort to avoid having his nose smashed in, he fell from the banister.
“Shoot!” He grabbed the bottom of the railing with one hand, his hat floating to the floor and revealing his short cut black hair. “What was that?”
“It doesn’t look like you’re good enough to challenge me.” Phekda said, satisfied with his inferiority. Her basketball bounced down from the track and smashed his hat in before rolling back to her.
Polaris sat up, rubbing her head. She saw Tuxedo Mask’s shined black shoes hit the wooden floor and her eyes opened wide. Tuxedo Mask glanced over at the remains of his top hat and rubbed the back of his neck, an action she’d seen made just recently. “You play dirty, but if you insist, I’ll try to keep you occupied.” He stepped forward and she passed him the ball. The pass was a little too hard, and it got him in the gut. Polaris began to shove herself up when she saw him recoil on impact. He fought to regain his composure. “Hm…was…never any good at basketball.”
“Get it on!” Phekda ordered. She took off for the basket, whizzing past him at an insane speed. He launched sideways, but she was gone before he could tackle her and he ended up laid out on the floor.
He looked up in time to see her dunk it again. “How’d she get so fast?”
Polaris got to her feet. Seeing that Phekda was distracted with her dunking, she cried. “North Star Power NOW!” A spiraling icicle shot from her hands and hit Phekda in the back. She was incased in a thick belt of ice and fell. It stayed in place for a second, but it broke when she hit the ground.
Tuxedo Mask looked over. “Sailor Polaris?”
“I’ve got you covered!” Polaris said.
Sailor Phekda got up and turned on her. “How dare you! I was winning!”
Malachite sighed from across the room. “Cat, how long do we have to wait here?”
“Not long.” Garth answered shortly. “She needs to make another basket for her power to be at max. The rejection should have started a while ago, but she’s been giving too many speeches and not playing enough basketball.”
Malachite turned back to the game, where one by one, the Sailor Soldiers were getting back to their feet. “That figures.”
“Play a game with her.” Tuxedo Mask directed to the other soldiers. “If you do that, you can heal her.”
“How do we know that you are telling the truth!?” Jupiter demanded. “We don’t even know if you are an enemy or an ally.”
“Would you just do it!?” Polaris demanded. “Geez, for crying out loud, we’re losing here!”
“You’re right, I’d hate to lose to a lousy basketball player.” Jupiter admitted. “Okay, guys, everyone circle in! Moon, stand off to the side and get ready to heal her as soon as we have her down!”
“Right!” Sailor Moon nodded.
“Bring it on!” Sailor Phekda said again. She started to dribble around again, weaving and dodging. Mercury jumped in her way and she stepped to the side. She kept her eyes on the basket as she avoided the Sailor Soldiers. Jupiter tried to trip her, but her enhanced reflexes narrowly escaped. Polaris grabbed one end of Tuxedo Mask’s cape, he had the other, and the two of them rushed forward as Phekda took a shot. As soon as the ball left her hands, she was smothered by the cape and pinned to the floor as Venus, and Mars rushed to step on the two empty corners. The basketball hit off the backboard and bounced into the net with a swoosh.
At that moment, the room went deafeningly quiet. There was a deep throbbing sound, and the overhead lights above them shattered. Glass shards rained down on their heads, and a spot on the black cape began to glow. The glow grew brighter as the color drained from every part of Phekda’s body. When the spot at her throat was bright enough, the light forced itself through the cape, tearing a gaping hole in it. Garth and Malachite held their breath as the light and color escaped from Phekda’s body. It was like a ghost as it rose off the floor. In the swirls of the white light had mixed with them the dusty red from Pam’s hair, and the brown color from her eyes. Underneath the covering, she was like a wax sculpture that had not been painted. As all the color that was within her exited, there was still something missing.
“Where is it?” Malachite asked.
“I don’t understand! It’s not there! But her scent was so strong!” Garth cried.
“Cat! This is enough! How many times are we going to do this!?” Malachite demanded. “This is a complete waste!”
“Silence maggot! We will find the three fragments! We will not return to the Prince and Princess until we do!”
“And you do not even mention the Queen!” Malachite cried. “What am I working with!? A defective cat!?”
“Remain silent!” Garth hissed. “Let’s get out of here! This is of no use to us.” With that, the two departed and left the Sailor Soldiers there watching Pam’s consciousness whoosh around the gymnasium.
“Sailor Moon!” Tuxedo Mask said, impatiently. “What are you waiting for!?”
Sailor Moon was frozen, clutching her Moon wand and staring blankly at the swirling mass of light and color that seemed to be otherworldly. “What is that!?” Her eyes stared unblinking. “Her spirit?”
“Her essence.” Mercury corrected.
“Sailor Moon! Get it together!” Sailor Mars cried. Sailor Moon forced herself to take her eyes of the ghost and held out her Moon Wand.
“Moon Healing ACTIVATION!” The magic that came from the wand when she spoke those words flew through the air and entered the hole in the cape. Once the Moon Magic had entered, it was as if it had reversed a vacuum. The color and light that was roaming freely in the rafters was sucked down and back into Phekda’s body. When all the essence had vanished from the air, the glass that had fallen from the lights flew up and took its place in the bulbs. The room became bright again. Even the whole in Tuxedo Mask’s cape had mended itself. When the cover was removed, Pam was left unconscious on the gym floor.
“Amazing.” Mercury gawked.
Tuxedo Mask took up his ruined hat and leapt back up onto the track, preparing to once again leave without a word. Polaris caught him, however before that could happen. “Hey! Wait!”
The man looked down at her through the lenses in his mask.
Polaris gulped. The room had gone quiet again, and everyone was staring at her. “Um…why do you have to leave? Why can’t you stay here, and we’ll get to know each other better? Then the other Sailors will know if you are an enemy or not.”
“Do you think that I’m an enemy, Sailor Polaris?” Tuxedo Mask asked.
She thought a second. She could feel the eyes of the others all boring into her. “Well, in my opinion, if two people fight the same enemy, then they are allies, right?”
Tuxedo Mask smiled. “You are a wise one, Polaris. You will always glow with that shine I see on you now. The day you don’t, will be the day I’ll have no reason to smile.” With that, he vanished.
Polaris’s heart was beating fast. Sailor Moon stared after Tuxedo Mask and whistled. “Whoa! He does think you’re special, Olivia.”
After de-transforming, Olivia, Serena, Raye, Mina, Lita, and Amy decided to go looking for Jennifer and Courtney. They found them huddled behind the snack bar, each sipping a frozen coke.
“Where’ve you guys been!? We’ve been looking all over for you!” Serena asked, leaning over the counter top.
“we were scared so we hid.” Jennifer answered.
Courtney took the straw out of her mouth and added, “we were just lucky that they had frozen cokes back here! And for only 99 cents!”
After making sure to leave a dollar each behind the counter, and going into the locker room to get their stuff, the Sports Club decided to adjourn. Raye pulled Olivia over while Jennifer was upstairs getting their mother from the weight room. “Hey, Olivia, can you come to the temple tomorrow night?”
“I think so.” Olivia answered. “Tomorrow’s Friday so Mom should let me out of the house.”
“Great!” Raye said. “We need to have a meeting. The Negaverse has totally changed strategy on us. We need to sit down and discuss everything with Luna and Artemis.”
“Right.” Olivia agreed. “I’ll ride there on my bike.”
“Olivia! Are you ready to go?” Her mother was coming down the stairs with Jennifer.
“Yeah, lets go.” Olivia agreed. She and her sister waved goodbye to the rest of the girls and headed up the stairs and out of the building. As they passed the main desk, Darien, his short black hair and blue eyes hitting Olivia with a new wave of strange warm tingling, called to her.
“Hey! Did you find your romance?”
Olivia blushed. “Yes I did!”

* * *

Queen Beryl was alone in her chamber with her daughter Chrysoberyl. The young heir was seated on the floor, and her royal mother was brushing her hair. As the brush moved down her daughter’s back, Beryl said, “Chrysoberyl, what is your plan you have brewing?”
“I have no plans that you do not know, mother.”
“I have been watching that cat your husband sent with Malachite to Earth.” Beryl told her. “It doesn’t seem to be following my specifications. I assumed that you and Kyanite had given it other orders.”
“I would not lie to you, mother.” Chrysoberyl said, mechanically, her shallow eyes showing no emotion.
“Of course you wouldn’t, but you do realize that I am your superior as long as I am alive.” Beryl said.
“Of course, mother” Chrysoberyl stared blankly ahead, but behind her seemingly empty deep-green eyes, her mind was a blur of evil thoughts and intentions. Yes, her mother had taught her well. She could lie better than anyone, and knew that she couldn’t tell her mother what she was planning. She would gain that power that she wanted. She would become greater than her mother long before Beryl thought that she would. She knew what she needed, and she had minions that she could trust. Beryl had never used trust among her inferiors. The generals were always cursing her, and some even plotted against her. Chrysoberyl knew that the Midnight Cat would not let her down, and that he would find what she and her husband so desired. ‘I will be Queen Pulsar.’ She thought. ‘Mother, you have no idea of my potential. You will see yourself bow at my feet.’
“It was good of you to tell us about that last Rainbow Crystal. You are always honest to me, aren’t you my daughter.”
“Yes mother.” Chrysoberyl lied. “Always, Mother.”

~To Be Continued~

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