NeoConstellation: New Beginnings Episode I: Infinite Destiny Calls ================================= Tori Krufenheiger wasn't anyone that looked harmless, but then again, she didn't exactly look like she could beat you down, either. Her plain, unadorned brown hair and brown eyes didn't lend any sort of contrast to her slightly tanned complexion. She swept the hair out of her eyes as she headed up the steps of the library. Her camera bag bumped against her waist a few times as she opened the door. The library was unusually empty except for a girl with long-ish green hair in what looked like a ponytail pulled over to one side of her head. Somehow she'd made it work. She was looking at sports books. Something about her was terribly unnerving. She felt wrong. A sort of aura of... aggressiveness... surrounded her. Tori could feel herself uneasily shift away. The girl turned around to throw a green-eyed glare at Tori before grinning like an assassin and walking away. Swallowing, Tori backed into a rack, and then grabbed the camera bag and her backback. Swinging them down to a table, she took out her prized digital camera and beaten-up laptop. Taking another look around, she also snatched out a bag of pretzels. Popping one into her mouth, she then stuffed the bag back into the backpack. Taking out several wires and a CD from the backpack, she began connecting the camera and computer while she stuck in the CD and plugged in the headphones. This took several minutes, not because she was trying to do four things at once, but because she had no idea what went where, and also because her mind was someplace it was not supposed to be. When it was done, she rummaged through the camera bag and came up with a disk. Popping it into the camera, she then went through the laptop's files until she found the digital imaging program. Browsing through the images she had snapped that afternoon, Tori's mind wandered a little. The image of the girl stuck in her head, and it was too familiar. Tori was sure she'd never seen the other girl before, but something had struck her as wrong. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ EPISODE ONE: INFINITE DESTINY CALLS +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ At her apartment that afternoon, Tori flopped down on her houseplant-surrounded bed and opened the laptop again. Fumbling for the phone cord, she plugged it in and connected to the Internet. As she was mindlessly checking her e-mail, a howl was heard form the other side of the sliding glass door leading out to the balcony. Turning suddenly at the thunderous snarl that sounded like some sort of dragon, Tori was surprised to see that the only thing out there was a tiny gray and black tabby cat perched on the railing, yowling. --That cannot be causing all that unearthly noise.-- She got up, stretched, and went over to the door, sliding it cautiously open. The cat jumped onto the floor and ran into the apartment. "Hey, wait!" Tori called. "You're not supposed to be in here." At that remark, the cat turned around and did an impressive back flip in the air, spinning to a full two rotations head-over-heels in the air. A tiny golden heart and a purple, gold, and white stick appeared on the couch where the cat landed. Tori could feel her eyebrows lift in surprise. Little did she know. "Tori, listen to me. My name is Draco, and I have been looking for you _all day_." Tori stumbled back a few steps. "Whaaa...? A talking cat?" Draco took a few steps forward. Tori crashed to the floor. "What the... whadda... what the 'ell?" She stammered. "You're language is beautiful, really, Tori. I need you to take this-" She gestured to the heart- "and, when applicable, say Pegasus Millennium Heart: Make-up, understand?" Tori nodded, more out of fearful attention than understanding. Draco snorted. "And you see this stick? Right here?" Tori nodded again. "Are you sure? Do you know what this stick does?" Tori nodded, then shook her head, causing her long hair to come undone and spill over her shoulders to pile on the floor. "This stick is a very powerful weapon. You see how small it is?" Tori nodded. "Don't use it when the situation turns unmanageable. Use it when the situation is impossible, and no matter what outcome, you will die. Just say Infinite Millennium to activate it." "D... die?" Tori faltered. "Yes." Said Draco. "You know, being a super heroine is a dangerous job. But," she paused, "you managed before. Just... watch out for the white star." "Before? Before what? What white star?" Tori asked, but Draco was already gone. ****I bet you always wondered if they thought while transforming, if Sailor Moon really panicked while she changed, if Sailor Mercury thought of a plan, if Mars prayed, Jupiter got angry , if Neptune and Uranus tried to think of a better challenge, if... well, you get my drift. **** Tori, now reasonably suspicious of a speck of dust, walked down the main street of Orpheus, USA. The dirt road made it obvious that Orpheus was one cow town that didn't stand a chance of becoming a major city. Before she knew what was happening, she was being chased. When she turned around, facing a dead-end street, nothing was behind her. Swallowing hard, she reached into her pocket, pulling out the golden heart. "Pegasus Millennium Heart...?" It came out sounding like a question, more than a statement. Tori squeezed her eyes shut. One eye popped open. Light. Lots of it. Totally new world. ---No, not totally new... I remember this!--- She looked up. A sparkling purple-white ball surrounded by a gold heart. ---Wow, that's pretty. Her semi-deranged brain kicked into gear. Stop a minute... nothing's happening. Wait... I forget the last part. --- "Make... up!" ---Okay, now we can go.--- The light began to move, two wings seemingly growing out of Tori's back. --Hey, cool, I'm an angel. And I sort of remember this... it's different. Different from last time, really, if I could remember more of last time.--- The wings wrapped around her. ---Hey, these are really cold. Should I try to have that fixed or what?--- They pulled back to reveal Tori (who was really no longer Tori) in a blue bodysuit, purple collar and bow, and a purple skirt with white trim around the outer edge and a purple, white-tailed bow in back. Purple tennis shoes encased her feet, and a pair of blue fingerless gloves with purple shoulder casing appeared on her arms. Three translucent blue-and-purple shoulder guards sparkled into place, as a purple and gold tiara with a white stone replaced the iRodot symbol on her forehead. A white choker went around her neck. She closed her eyes as two white four-pointed star earrings went through her ears, and the smallest hint of lilac-glitter lipstick graced her lips. Then, opening her eyes, she tossed back her head and turned to the side, hair swirling off to the right. She struck a final pose with her feet one behind the other, ankles crossed, one hand on her hip and the other straight in front of her, all five fingers spiraled out. "Impressive but, I assure you, very futile." Pegasus (for she now remembered who she was) spun around to face a guy with long, blue hair, which he wore tied back into a very long, strange-looking tail that somehow ended in three sections, despite seemingly being one piece. He wore a white shirt, jeans, and a white star on a chain around his neck, almost like a dog tag, and he also had a bag of pretzels that were being causally munched on. She tilted her head to the side somewhat and said, "who are you?" instead of launching into the speech she was supposed to make. He regarded her cautiously with sparkling green eyes. "My name is Spica. And I trust you are Sailor Pegasus?" She nodded. "Soldier of Infinite Destinies?" "I am? Ah. I mean, yeah, I am." He nodded, lifting one eyebrow to let her know he thought she was a total nutcase. "And you're that... princess... princess..." He started snapping his fingers. "That...princess girl..." Pegasus, annoyed that he was not offering a pretzel, said "Pegasia?" "Yeah. Princess Pegasia." "If you want the Queen, go see my mother." "I'm not looking for your mother." "Still, go see someone else." She retorted, eyeing the bag of pretzels. "Do you have the... the... uh... the Millennium... the Millennium thingy?" She rolled her eyes. "The Millennium Heart. Not the "Millennium Thingy"." "Then I take it you have it?" "No, my sister does." "The other princess?" "No, the other princess. Of course I have it! I'm older! She's got the _Centennial Thingy_." "You don't have to be so sarcastic." She eyed the bag of pretzels again. "Really?" "Really. And so, since you're the princess, I'll leave it up to Vega and Streak to get you. That Cassiopeia girl has us going for a while. And did I mention how much trouble we had to go through to get that lousy cat of yours back?" Pegasus huffed, then looked up. He was gone. At the "That Cassiopeia girl..." section of the last comment, Cassiopeia succeeded in sneezing off a very stubborn piece of heavy-duty duct tape. Then, she started screaming. "It's them, I tell you! The white stars! It's them! She told me, you understand? LEO! Get me out of here! She told me!" As Leo began to tug off the rope tying her down to a chair, Gemini suddenly appeared out of nowhere and kicked him across the room. "What do you think you're doing, Gemini? It's them!!!" Shelby began tying her back to the chair. "Look," Gemini began, leaning down to face-level with her, "it'd help if you told us who 'they' are, but since you're not doing that..." he straighted and slapped the duct tape back across her mouth. Shelby sighed. "You know, this would be a whole lot easier if my girlfriend knew what was going on." Gemini looked down at him. "She probably does." This is only proof that certain people know Pegasus way too well. Sagittarius, Draco, Orion, Gemini, and Shelby being 'certain people'. The next day, Tori slumped into a desk for the first day of school at the First School of Art. The golden Millennium Heart locket was now attached to the front bow of the school's black, white, and gray uniform. Yawning, she dropped her backpack and camera case onto the floor beside her desk. She had on of the few window seats in the room, perfect for staring out of while nothing was going on. There was a lot of nothing going on at the First School of Art. In fact, nothing was going on a good ninety percent of the time. A girl who Tori had never seen before dropped into the desk beside her. She had vividly red hair with pink streaks going through it that dropped down to her knees, and ruddy brown eyes. Tori wouldn't have noticed her if she hadn't dropped her camera case next to Tori's, and had half the contents spill out. Hey. We have the same camera. Picking it up carefully and inspecting the lens, she handed it back to the girl. "Here." "Thanks." The girl smiled, a grin that portrayed nothing but pure cheerfulness in all it's simplicity. "My name's Lola Risis. New student. What's yours?" "Tori Krufenheiger." Tori smiled and shook hands with her. "Oh, that's a cute idea." "What?" Tori wasn't aware of her 'cute idea'. "That. Wearing that locket on your bow. Think I could do it with this?" And with that, she pulled a gleaming white star on a chain out from around her neck. Tori stared and she was pretty sure she made a gurgling noise. "Uh... maybe." She squeaked. "Dar... where'd you get it? It's... nice." "Oh, I've had it forever. I don't know what it is, though." "Ah." Tori didn't know what it was, either, but she really didn't like it. "Is that the teacher?" Lola poked Tori out of her trance and pointed across the room. Tori nodded. A pleasant-looking lady in a cobalt-blue dress suddenly smiled knowingly and said, "I know one of you is the princess of the White Star. I just need to know which." +++++======+++++++++=======++++++++========+++++++====== Sailor Pegasus Says: Today we learned absolutely nothing except that I can actually think and almost speak while I tranform!!! Isn't that neat? _____________________ Tori Says: My mother cannot put cheese on hot dogs. She is incapable of putting cheese on hot dogs correctly. Everyone knows that there is only one way of putting cheese on hot dogs. I however, being on nuts and cheese, can do it perfectly. +++++++============++++++++=======+++++++++========+++++++