NeoConstellation: New Beginnings Episode Seven- Dark Star (no relation to...) ================================ The three were sitting around a table at Isle Cafe, a small restuarant over on 32nd street in Orpheus. It looked an awful lot like Tori's apartment: houseplants everywhere. The brick floor was well-worn, and Tori wouldn't be surprised to see some sort of little fuzzy animal running around. Spica smiled a little. "We'd be glad to release them, of course, now, but they really don't know what is going on..." ********************************************************************** EPISODE SEVEN DARK STAR (no relation to Dark Star Books and Comics in Plain City, OH) ********************************************************************** Derek (who was now in human form, wearing a gold shirt with the sleeves cut off and jeans) ran up and asked what was going on. Shelby gave him a really dirty look and asked "We were thinking about going to look for you. But we decided that you'd just probably gone off looking for trouble. Or something." North Star dug her elbow into his ribs. He winced. Derek plopped himself down on the ground with the rest of the Guardians and looked around. He was getting several glares from Guardians, guardians, and Constellations alike. "They're called the Dark Stars." Spica explained. "And they're after the same thing we were. You. He nodded toward Lola. "However, we don't know a lot about them yet." Tori lifted an eyebrow. "And what are we suppposed to do about this?" She asked. Lola nodded. He shrugged. "I don't know. By this stage of the game I would think we could stop hovering over her." He gave a questioning look to Lola again, and she nodded. Suddenly, a strange whitish glow was caused by the white star lockets. Spica looked up. The white energy glow was coming from the second balcony of the cafe. In the rush to get out of their seats and up the stairs, they found that you cannot get three superheroes-superheroines into a stairwell at the same time. When they finally got to the second level, another cat-thing was collecting energy. Spica was the first to act. "Spica Star Power, Make-up!" Nothing happened. His face lost some of it's cocksure glow. He held up the star and shook it a little. "Something's wrong here." Lola grimaced, then said "Polaris Star Power, Make-up!" Again, nothing. The white glow around them didn't fade, however, and somehow started to spread to the Millennium Heart. Tori's face fell, then... "Pegasus Millennium Heart, Make-up!" She smiled as it began to glow, then crashed to the floor when it faded and the locket dropped to the floor in front of her. "Theres... theres got to be something wrong with it!" She wailed, doing an Usagi impression. The cat-thing turned around, purring slightly. "It's because I'm taking it's energy." Spica launched into a fighting stance, fully prepared to take it on untransformed, Lola backed into the wall. Tori bent down, pounded her fist on the ground, and looked upward to yell- "Shelby!" At that moment, Eclypse, eyes closed, concentrating on not showing a lot of weakness in front of Gemini, suddenly turned his face upward, and his eyes shot wide open in recognition. "What?" Asked Orion. He closed his eyes again. "Something's happening." Cassiopeia got up, and stood off by herself for awhile. Gemini didn't pay attention when she left, and Shelby was preoccupied. Lola picked Tori up from the ground. "Come on." She said, and stuck the star back into her pocket. Tori unhappily stood. Just then, a shadow was cast across the room. A very sailor- like shadow. Zodiac Sailor Aries. Pegasus smiled happily. "Aries!" The figure in the window, wearing red and gold sailor fuku, smiled. "I am Sailor Aries, first soldier of the zodiac. On behalf of the symbols of the heavens, I shall punish you!" The cat-thing turned it's gaze toward Aries. "Battering Ram Smash!" A thundering attack of pink and red lightning fshot toward the monster. It thundered to a million pieces, and the energy ball dissavoled. Aries cocked her head to the side. "Well, _theres_ some reaction time. I almost couldn't hit that." The energy went back to Stars and Heart. Pegasus looked up at Aries, who was giving her a 'why-couldn't-you-do-that?' type of look. "It... took the energy from the crystals and we couldn't transform, okay? It wasn't exactly _our_ fault." Aries lifted an already-high eyebrow and said "Who are 'they'?" Then she was gone, before they had a chance to answer. Draco came running up to the small group of Constellation senshi and Guardians. "Where's Cassiopeia?" She said. Gemini looked around and noticed, for the first time, that Cassiopeia was no longer with them. "I don't know." He shrugged. "GRR!" Shouted Draco. "This is INFURIATING!!" Gemini had an idea. "I know it is... but then again, thanks to you Shelby is of no help and we don't know what's going on, and plus that we're stuck in the middle of freaking nowhere!" "Well." Said Draco, then reached up with a paw to pull the cross-shaped gold medallian on her collar. With a flash of violet light, she stood in her human form, five feet tall, bicolored eyes, gray hair with black streaks, wearing a metallic purple shirt, yellow sailor belt, and pink wideleg pants. "For one thing, I think we'd all better get together." She concentrated for a moment, then said "Aries. .. get back here." Sailor Aries came back in a flash of red light. "So, what are we waiting for?" She asked with a grin. "The doctors to take us back to the asylum." Muttered Eclypse. Later that evening, Lola and Tori were in the school's music lab, with Tori playing the violin and Lola playing the school's grand piano. "So what do you think of the situation?" Asked Tori, placing her fingers to provide a sound without squeaks. Lola shrugged at the piano. "The musical situation or the dark star situation?" "Let's get our minds off sailor buisness for once. The musical situation." Said Tori. Lola smiled, and kept playing. "What I think is that you're squeaking. Move your third finger down." Tori made a face at the violin. "I can't very well play and talk at the same time." "Then don't try it. Besides, when you talk your violin moves." Tori grunted. The two were practicing for a concert that they were giving next week for the school's fundraiser... ***************************************************** SAILOR PEGASUS SAYS: I need a vacation!!! GEMINI SAYS: I hate this. SHELBY SAYS: Ditto. You're not the one in actual physical pain! You remember that "I love my job" thing? I don't!!! CASSIOPEIA SAYS: You morons, get your respective acts together!!! TORI SAYS: Cheese. Hot dogs. GET IT TOGETHER!!! There's only ONE COMBINATION!!!