-Episode 01-

   "Trish!" Usagi cried, spotting her as she came towards the tree she was at, and waved.

   "Ohayoo, Usagi-san!" Trish returned, grinning as she trotted over.

   Usagi and two other girls who were with her giggled. Perplexed, Trish stood in front of them, eyebrows raised. Finally, the girl with short-cropped, bluish hair explained.

   "It is not morning, Trish," she said in a soft, light voice. "Now that it is midday, the appropriate term would be ‘konnichi wa’."

   "Yeah, and Usagi is certainly no ‘-san’," the taller, brown-haired girl chuckled, receiving a glare from Usagi.

   "Who...?" Trish wondered, looking at the two new girls.

"Kino Makoto," the brown-haired girl introduced, "and girl-genius, Mizuno Ami. Usagi has already told us about you, Conti Trish."

   First intimidated by her tomboyish aura, Trish felt better as Makoto smiled warmly at her. Soon the four of them were engaged in animate chatter, even if the three natives had to slow down their talk considerably for the American to understand some things.

   The time passed quickly, and before anybody realized it, they were scarfing down their lunches as they hurried back to class. The remainder of the day passed much slower then the earlier part to Trish, probably due to her eager awaiting of the promised tour of a real, live Shinto shrine.

   When they were finally dismissed, the blonde bolted out of her seat and down the hallway. There she waited impatiently at the door for Makoto and Ami to come. Usagi would come later, when she was done serving her detention.

   "Here already, Trish?" Makoto grinned as she walked up to her, Ami holding a large pile of books next to her.

   "What are the books for?" Trish inquired as they walked out of the school.

   Makoto sweatdropped as Ami replied, "Studying is important."

   "Our study group is held there as well," Makoto whispered to her as explanation.

   "Oh," Trish blinked, her heart dropping several feet.

   The conversation turned to brighter topics as they walked, and in what seemed like a short time, the three of them found themselves walking up a rather steep set of steps that went way up a hill. Panting, they finally made it to the top and stumbled toward a building near them.

   "Was it needed to build this building up here so far?" Trish wondered, her face red, as they entered a comfy looking room where two girls already waited.

   One of them, who seemed to be the priestess that Usagi had talked about so vehemently, was staring at the door when they entered, her raven black hair flowing freely behind her. Deep purple eyes widened slightly when she caught sight of Trish, but the blonde couldn’t puzzle out why because the priestess quickly averted her gaze.

   "Trish, meet Hino Rei and Aino Minako," Makoto introduced.

   "Oooo! Is she an exchange student? She looks like she’s from the west. Is she? Does she know English? Can she help me with this homework?" Minako bubbled, her blue eyes sparkling.

   Most of this was lost by Trish, but she didn’t have to figure out what to say in reply, because Ami dropped her pile of books on a low table at that time, and sat down.

   "We need to focus on studying," said Ami, opening a book in front of her.

   Minako groaned as Makoto sat down as well. "Can’t we have a day off? It’s the second week of school! A girl needs time to have a life!"

   "Where is Trish from?" Rei was asking Makoto as Minako whined.

   "I am from America," Trish spoke up, making the priestess jump. "Yes, I can speak some Japanese," she added at the apparent surprise of Rei.

   Before the priestess could reply, however, two cats came streaking into the room through the window, one black, one white. Each had a gold crescent moon mark on their foreheads. Trish stared at them as Minako scooped up the white cat with one hand.

   "Artemis, where have you been?" She asked in a scolding tone before plopping him in her lap.

   The black cat had stopped, halfway to Ami, and was staring at Trish in such a way that made her neck prickle. Ami looked at both of them quickly before scooping the cat up much in the same manner as Artemis had been.

   "Woah, freaky," said Trish to herself as she rubbed her neck.

   "This is Luna, Trish," said Ami, calling the blonde’s attention back to the cat. She scratched the cat gently between its ears as it relaxed in her lap.

   The next moment, Usagi joined the group by nearly falling through the door and onto Makoto. As she spluttered an apology and plopped down next to the brunette, Trish caught the two cats and Rei exchange looks which she was fairly certain were not about Usagi. Suddenly feeling singled out from the rest of the group, Trish remained fairly quiet for the rest of the study session, unless questions were asked of her.

   By the time she had to leave for home, the blonde was awfully certain that the two cats and the priestess did not like her. The cats also seemed to be more intelligent then they let on, which made her feel even more edgy.

   With the invitation to come back the next day in her mind, Trish sprinted down the sidewalk that led towards her home for the year. Already she was late for the appointed dinner time, and knowing how punctual the family was, the blonde could only hope for cold leftovers.

   She slowed down and glanced at her watch with a sigh as she passed the local mall. Dinner definitely would’ve been done ten minutes ago, she reasoned, looking up at the sign for the mall. They won’t mind if I take longer and look around inside.

   "Besides," she said to herself out loud as she walked in, "it’s not like I’ve actually been to a Japanese mall yet...cultural experience and all that..."

   The blonde meandered over to what appeared to be a jewelry shop, with sparkling gems imbedded in all sorts of golden wear. She strolled around the store for a few minutes, admiring each one in turn, and wishing she had more money. As she bent over to examine a particularly sparkly silver bracelet, a shrill shriek split through the otherwise quiet mall.

   Trish immediately swiveled around to catch a better view of what was happening. A saleslady who was about to ask her if she needed any help also turned to look. Several people went running past and out the doors, as a woman staggered into view, her eyes wide with fright.

   She looked at Trish momentarily before passing out onto the tile floor. The blonde blinked, and then, with more bravery then she thought she had, stepped forward enough to bend over and check the lady’s pulse. With a breath of relief, she nodded at the petrified saleslady to let her know the woman was alive still.

   Another shriek made Trish jerk her head up. What she saw made her as petrified as the saleslady; a shadowy figure had both hands around the neck of a teenage girl. What was even more disturbing, was that the shadow had bright, icy blue eyes, which sparkled with the same amount of intelligence the cat had seemed to possess.

   The shadow abruptly dropped the now unconscious girl, and scanned the area for more potential victims. Its eyes landed on Trish and the saleslady. Grinning with a slit that had suddenly appeared in its mouth area, the creature quickly reached them.

   Trish, reason suddenly entering her head, bolted. Running with speed she never knew she had, she nearly got past the shadow, but then found her nose rubbing the floor. The shadow had tripped her, and now she felt eerily icy hands wrapping around her neck, yanking her to her feet.

   "Ssstupid humansss," the shadow hissed in a distinctly female voice as she turned Trish around to face her. "Think you can get away?"

   "Le-let GO!" Trish sputtered, scrabbling at the shadow’s hands. She looked frantically over at the saleslady for help, but was rather disappointed to see her strewn out on the floor in a clear faint.

   The shadow rolled both blue eyes at the obvious response that she definitely wasn’t going to. The blonde started to feel weak, and realized that the shadow was draining her of something...her energy? But how could that be possible? Only school drained people’s energy, and flowers are pretty...pretty flowers...orange ducks...

   Her thoughts became scattered, black edging her vision, and she stopped struggling against the shadow’s grip. Then, out of the blue, or rather, gray (considering that there was a ceiling above her and not a sky...oh bother), something hard dropped on her head, accompanied by shrill birdsong. Trish’s vision cleared, and she found herself watching the shadow swat at a darting, small bird. Rubbing her head, she looked around for what had hit her, and discovered a black stone a few feet away.

   Picking it up, she realized that it was relatively light, and cut smoothly into the shape of half a yinyang. A small white circle completed its yinyang-esque design. Befuddled about its uses, she turned it over several times in her hands.

   A soft thud snapped her back to reality, and a quick glimpse around revealed that the bird was lying in a crumbled ball against a near wall. The shadow grinned briefly at Trish before lunging towards her again, transparent hands outstretched.

   Trish somehow managed to duck underneath the lunge and sprint towards the wall. Scooping up the bird in one hand with the other clutching the stone, she glanced back at the main entrance, then the shadow.

   "You’re becoming a nasssty nuisssance," the shadow grumbled, her grin gone. "I would like to end thisss now."

   She held her hands out in front of her, and a glowing, liquidy blue mass formed in them. There was a brief pause before it shot out of her hands in a sideways column at Trish. The blonde, petrified, snapped her eyes shut.

   "Burning mandala!" A girl cried, and Trish felt something warm go past her.

Cued by an angry cry from the shadow, the blonde opened her eyes and looked around. The blue liquid was gone and in its place was a quickly dispersing mist. Five oddly dressed girls had also appeared, standing halfway between her and the shadow, all in various poses. Their outfits greatly resembled that of a sailor’s, if a sailor wore a really short skirt.

   Each of their skirts, collars, shoes, and bows, though, were different colours. The girl, who Trish identified as the one that deflected the shadow’s attack, wore red and purple, her black hair accenting it well.

   The shortest, a blonde in blue and red colours and with a hairstyle very similar to Usagi’s, launched into a speech almost immediately, accompanied with funky hand motions. "For love and justice, I'm the pretty soldier Sailor Moon. In place of the moon, I'll punish you!"

   "And I’m Sailor Mars!" The girl primarily in red cried.

   "I’m Sailor Mercury!" A girl with a mostly blue outfit chimed in.

   "Sailor Jupiter!" The girl in green shouted.

   "And I’m Sailor Venus!" The last girl, garbed in orange and blue, yelled.

   "Ssso," the shadow hissed, looking even angrier then before, "you ssstill live. We will have to deal with you, then."

   In the period of time it takes the normal reader to read this sentence, the shadow hurled another column of blue stuff at the group of girls. They scattered to let it past, then moved back together again, the one in green raising her hands.

   "Sparkling wide pressure!" Jupiter cried, sending a wave of crackling lightning at the shadow.

   The shadow laughed, and became even more translucent. The attack went straight through her and into a building behind her. She looked back to survey the damage with a grin before solidifying again.

   "Wimpy sssoldiersss," she taunted. "You couldn’t defeat usss then, what makes you think you can defeat usss now?"

   "Who are you?!" Mars demanded as the girl in orange next to her, Venus, prepared an attack.

   "Umbra," she replied simply, watching as Venus started to spin in the beginnings of her attack.

   "Venus love me--!" Venus cried.

   Umbra, thinking quickly, darted at Trish and grabbed her wrists. Behind her, she pressed the blonde’s arms to her back, and then grinned over Trish’s shoulder at the soldiers.

   "Chain!" Venus ended, just as she realized her target was suddenly behind someone they were trying to defend. In a complicated few movements, some of which were to keep her from falling flat on her face, she managed to throw her attack at a small kiosk.

   Everyone froze and looked at each other, Umbra quickly trying to calculate her next move in her mind. Mercury flipped down a blue-tinted visor and started squinting into it.

   Umbra lifted her free hand which wasn’t holding onto Trish and aimed at the soldiers, her attack forming in her palm. The blonde saw this out of the corner of her eye, and started squirming, trying to get free so she could help. But she was already in a weakened state from having her energy drained.

   In response to her frustration, the bird in her hand started to glow. It gave a loud shriek as it woke up, out of its coma, and took to the air. The next shriek was strange, though, holding a different resonance then the ones it had uttered before, and an unexpected feeling washed over Trish.

   With a new sense of power, the blonde yanked her hands away from the distracted shadow who had been watching the bird. Backing up towards the wall, she raised both hands to the ceiling, clutched between them the now glowing, black stone.

   "I got it!" Mercury cried, flipping up her visor, "Aim for her eyes!"

   "Hey!" Sailor Moon exclaimed, eyes wide, "What is she doing?!"

   Trish closed her eyes and ignored the stares from the girls as déjà vu swept over her. "Platos star power, MAKE UP!"

   She felt herself start to spin on her tiptoes as the stone stropped from her relaxed fingers. It settled, hovering above her chest and glowing steadily. Though she couldn’t see the pale orange flames that started to swirl around her feet, she definitely felt the soothing warmth as they rose upwards, obscuring her body from sight, in a cyclone shape.

   Trish almost felt saddened when the flames receded after a few seconds, the warmth leaving her. Instinctively, she opened up her eyes, and looked down at herself. For some reason, she wasn’t exceedingly surprised when she saw that she was no longer wearing her blue jeans and pale blue t-shirt, but instead, an outfit identical to the soldiers. Only it was starch white, and the black stone had attached itself to her front bows. Her shoes were also different; instead of tennis shoes, they were white boots that cut off midcalf.

   She looked up at the soldiers, the surprise in their faces exceeding her own. Sailor Moon and Venus were gaping. Mercury was squinting through her blue-tinted visor again. Sailor Mars had a very strange expression on her face, somewhere between surprise and anger. Jupiter just looked...startled.

   Trish slowly came back to reality as she looked over towards the shocked Umbra. But then words started to tumble from her mouth which she would never have thought of to say.

   "From the deep tales of lore, I am the pale sailor soldier of the first dimension, Sailor Platos! For all that my dimension stands for, I shall poke your eyes out!"

   Umbra raised an eyebrow. "Poke my eyesss out? I didn’t know the sssoldiersss could be that lame..."

   "She’s a soldier," said Mercury, flipping back up her visor. "With about the same amount of power as us."

   The bird landed on Trish’s shoulder and chirruped in her ear. Confidence filled her from some unknown source, and Trish found herself grinning. Then, out of the gray, the name for the bird flipped itself into her mind; Ora.

   Feeling now like Ora was controlling all of her movements, Trish raised her hands up and cried, "cyclone...!"

   Flames leapt up around her feet, much like they had in her transformation. They spiraled around, then up, in their tornado-esque fashion.

   "...inferno!" Trish ended, pulling the flames up above her head where they shaped into a funnel. She brought it back down in her cupped hands, then quickly spun around once, gaining the momentum needed to chuck it at Umbra.

   Umbra seemed to sigh, before she made herself translucent. Trish felt her heart drop several miles, watching the attack she knew already was doomed. But when it hit Umbra, the top of it smacking her eyes, she flickered, becoming solid again for a brief moment.

   The shadow’s blood curdling shriek filled the mall, and made the soldiers clamp their hands over their ears. When the attack dissipated, they could see Umbra standing there, halfway hunched over, one eye squeezed tightly shut, and shivering. A curl of smoke rose up into the air and disappeared.

   "Time to finish her off, Sailor Moon," said Jupiter, turning towards the pigtailed girl who seemed to be the leader of the bunch.

   "Right." Sailor Moon nodded, and got out her Moon Rod.

   However, before she could begin the attack, another shadow materialized. Her single, bright orange eye blazed with annoyance, and before anybody could move, she grabbed Umbra by the wrist and both of them disappeared.

   All six girls blinked.

   The small room was considerably cleaner, and significantly brighter. The man sat, asleep, in the black stone chair, an out-of-place, white broom leaning against the back of the chair. His snoring filled the entire room, and refused to stop even when two Shadows came in through the unpatched hole in the roof.

   "Massster?" Atra hissed cautiously, peering into his pale face.

   "Mer?" He mumbled back.

   "Massster, the sssoldiersss are ssstill alive," Atra started, taking his mumble as a sign of his consciousness. "It will be harder then previousssly thought to collect energy. Umbra failed missserably, but I think we ssshould give her a sssecond chance, consssidering none of usss knew that the sssoldiersss would ssstill be alive..." she trailed off, slowly realizing that he wasn’t conscious.

   "Massster!" She growled, then turned to Umbra with a curt nod.

   Umbra grinned mischievously as she rubbed her hands together quickly. They glowed blue while she held them over the man’s face. A swift burst of icy cold water was sufficient enough to awaken the man.

   "ARGH!" He cried, bolting upright and swinging a fist at Umbra, who had smarts enough to jump back beforehand.

   "WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!" He thundered, glaring around the room at the only two Shadows he could see.

   Atra patiently restated her conclusions, which calmed him down significantly. Then he had Umbra recite to him exactly what had happened down on Earth.

   "A new soldier?" He pondered as she finished.

   "Yesss, Massster. Ssshe called herssself Platosss," Umbra elaborated.

   "Hmph," the man muttered. "She will be dealt with as well as the others. But first we need that energy. Umbra, did you manage to gather any energy?"

   Umbra perked up at this, "Yesss, Massster."

   She held out her cupped hands and concentrated. Shortly after, a glowing sphere of warm energy formed, which she placed into the hands of the man. He grunted, then let it soak into the chair he sat upon before looking back over towards Atra.

   "We will need at leassst four timesss that amount," she stated in answer to his soundless question.

   "All right, then," he nodded and thought briefly, then glanced at the blue-eyed Shadow. "Umbra, since you failed to get a more...worthy amount, you will be sent on the next mission. Do try to avoid the soldiers, though. We are not yet strong enough to confront them."

   Umbra nodded curtly before disappearing back into the shadows. After a quick night’s rest, she would set off again in the morning.

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