Fhaux
Matchmaker
About a month ago
“In the name of the moon, we will punish you!!!”
A civilian was lying face down on the ground, a shimmering crystal floating over his chest as a hideous two-headed beast hunched over him, a long tongue hanging out of one of its mouths. Its attention was stuck on the five scouts at first, but then he wrapped his tongue around the crystal and the other head let out a war cry, a circular light growing in its throat and then shooting out at the sailor scouts.
“Look out!”
The six of them leapt out of the way, their pink-clad leader keeping a close eye on the monster as she landed safely on the ground. She took hold of her tiara as the monster started charging up for another attack. “Moon tiara magic!” She launched the tiara like a disk, but the monster let loose its attack and the two attacks collided and nullified each other. Sailor Moon’s tiara came to an abrupt halt and clattered to the ground.
“Amazoness jungle arrow!” The quartet used their group attack, launching a shining arrow of light at the enemy. It hit at his feet and sent him flying backwards with a screech, dropping the crystal in the process. Sailor Ceres caught the crystal and the monster turned and ran away from the group.
“Sailor Moon, let’s go!”
While the Sailor quartet fell behind to help the monster’s target, Sailors Moon and Saturn ran after the creature to stop him before he could hurt anyone else. They chased him down the street and towards the park.
…
Trying to enjoy the great weather before curfew, Mia sat cross-legged on one of the park benches, her school bags sitting next to her with a book cracked open as she closed out the rest of the world and hid in her solitude. People passed, but nobody bothered her. A slight breeze played at the loose strands of red hair in her face, two loose, messy fishtail braids hanging over her shoulders thick and long.
A screech in the distance caught her attention and she looked up from her book for a minute, but soon had her nose back in her book, hazel eyes intently staring at the pages. As she finished turning one page, she turned to the next.
The ground shook.
Mia looked up again, this time bookmarking her page and closing it. She heard people screaming and set her book aside, getting to her feet and grabbing her bag, her eyes fixed in the direction the screams were coming from, as if she would spontaneously acquire x-ray vision if she stared long enough, as if she would be able to see through the trees to find out what was going on.
The nest thing she knew, a huge beast burst out of the trees and stopped right in front of her. It had two heads and long front arms like a gorilla. It spotted her and one of the heads licked its lips, its arms reaching out towards her as the second head opened, drool pouring out onto the ground as a small light began to glow in his throat, slowly getting larger.
‘What the…’
Before she could even finished her thought, the light shot out of his throat, hitting the ground by Mia’s feet and exploding, the force throwing her a good distance before she skidded to a stop on the ground, her bag thrown clear of her, not that that mattered right now.
She tried to get up but the monster jumped on top of her, holding her limbs down with his own. The head that had previously been licking it’s lips now had its long tongue hanging out, drool dripping off of it, on to her and the ground. She tried to fight her way free, but he was too strong. She struggled, grunting in exertion.
He opened his mouth wide towards her and suddenly she felt a force pulling at her chest, as if someone was trying to pull her heart out. She cried out, still trying to get away, and her forehead started to burn. The monster seemed frustrated by something and took a break from sucking whatever-it-was out of her chest to point his head up at the sky and roar. But she still felt the pulling sensation in her chest. And in this moment one of the monster’s hands loosened, unintentionally she was sure, and she slipped her wrist out of his grip.
With her free hand she grabbed the tongue that was still hanging in her face, the only thing she could reach, and yanked it sharply. It caught the monster off-guard and he jumped, allowing her to free the rest of her limbs from his grasp. She lifted her feet to kick him off of her. It hadn’t worked as well as she’d planned, but she rolled out from under him and heaved herself to her feet, grasping her chest tightly, feeling something was about to burst out of it.
“H- AHHHHH!”
Before she could call out for help, he shot another beam at her, and it was all she could do to avoid it to throw herself on the ground. The huge drool that was still on her began dripping off and connected her to the ground. Literally. She tried to stand back up but the sticky drool was stuck to her, and the ground, and wouldn’t separate from itself, her or the ground.
She couldn’t move and the monster approached her and sneezed on her, sticking her to the ground with even more saliva. He was about to start pulling her chest out again but she let out a loud cry and she was engulfed in a bright, orange light that dissolved the drool and sent the monster flying away from her. The pulling on her chest intensified and as if someone had reached into her and pulled it out, a star-shaped locket emerged from her chest.
“Ugh!” She grabbed for her chest but the sensation was gone and she looked at the locket floating in front of her.
“Sailor Leo, you’re powers lay before you,” The soft, melodic voice echoed in her head, drowning all other sound out, as if she’d been transported to another dimension. “Take this Star Locket and reawaken…” There was no ignoring it, and even though she didn’t have a clue what was going on or what the voice was talking about, she complied and took hold of the locket.
She stared at it for a moment then looked up to see the monster running for her. She heard the voice in her head again and repeated what it said. “Leo Power!”
Light engulfed her and her silhouette was wrapped in warm, orange ribbons that almost seemed like they were burning rays of sunlight as they shimmered in the light. The light shattered into pieces as if it were glass, and fluttered towards the ground, but dissolved before reaching it, and she was revealed as a sailor scout in orange and pink, standing in a pose, giving the illusion that she knew what she was doing. But the monster was coming right at her and all she could think to do was jump out of the way, which she did. She leapt into the air as he threw himself at her, jumping off of one of his heads and landing safely on the ground behind him.
She turned around and the monster was getting up after her jump off of his head had thrown him into the ground. She knew he would come after her again and she still didn’t know what to do. Luckily, just as he was turning around to attack her again, six other sailor scouts made their appearance.
Right as they burst onto the scene they were focused completely on the monster, until they saw Mia, an unfamiliar scout. She was just as surprised as they were, but they managed to refocus more quickly than her.
“Sailor Moon!” One of them called as the monster began charging another attack.
Their pink-haired leader nodded understanding and drew out a wand. “Moon Gorgeous Meditation!” Wand held out in front of her, a bright heart-shape emerged from the top of it and flew towards the monster, growing bigger and bigger until it finally collided with the monster and shattered around him. It let out a scream and toppled over, dissolving into thin air, all but a small, black, heart-shaped gem that fell to the ground with brown smoke coming off of it.
One of the scouts, with a glaive, walked up to it and turned her blade towards it, bringing it down to destroy what Mia could only assume was the source of the monster’s evil power. Once the monster was taken care of, one of the scouts sighed “They’re getting tougher…”
The scout with the glaive and Sailor Moon, however, were more interested in her. “It’s a good thing there’s a new sailor scout then.” They made their way over to her and she wasn’t sure what to say.
She was introduced to each of them, Sailor Moon, Sailor Saturn, Salor Vesta, Sailor Pallas, Sailor Juno and Sailor Ceres. She had to assume she was Sailor Leo, as the voice in her head had called her that before, and she introduced herself as such. And they suggested she join their team.
“This team is not yours, you must find the missing two.”
That voice again. She didn’t necessarily want to be a part of this team, or any of this to be honest. She didn’t usually listen to voices in her head, but so far this one had only helped her. “No,” she spoke up “I’m not a part of your team… I have to go…” They seemed disappointed, but she turned to leave.
“Wait,” Sailor Moon stopped her. “We’re all sailor scouts, we should team up and stick together!”
She stopped for a moment but didn’t face them. “I’m not supposed to be on your team. I have my own mission. Good luck in yours.”This time they let her go, but they still seemed disappointed. She sighed as she walked away. She didn’t know what she was doing, she was about as new to this as she could be and here she was turning do the best help she could ask for. And even though she didn’t really want this, she realized that her mind was already set on being a sailor scout and that she had to look to the others as an example and protect earth.
Hopefully the voice in her head was right…
27 Days ago
It had been a couple of days since discovering she was Sailor Leo, and she hadn’t heard the voice since then. She didn’t have a clue what she was supposed to be doing, and was starting to think it had all been a very vivid dream. Except she still had the locket…
She had been out of the house just as much as usual, as much as she could possibly get away with before her parents locked her in her room and put bars on her windows. She was walking through the park for the first time since she’d encountered the monster. There was still damage, but other than that everything was back to normal, with plenty of people around enjoying the sunlight. Brushing red strands of hair out of her face, she looked around, wondering if maybe the voice was only at this spot and if that was why she hadn’t heard it since.
She could see the top of the crystal palace from here, over the tree tops, through the clearing the monster had created. She waited for a few moments, but nothing. The only voices she heard were those of the other park-goers taking a stroll or having a picnic. She’d hoped she could find some answers here, but it looked like she was going to leave just as clueless.
26 Days ago
Mia walked home from school the next day, she wanted to drop off her books and change out of her uniform before finding something to do, and hopefully something that would take her mind off of all of this sailor scout business. She couldn’t force the answers to come so she was going to try to relax today. If all else failed, she could find the other scouts, maybe they could help her.
Once home, she ran to her room and tossed her bag onto her bed before stripping down to her underwear, leaving her school uniform on the ground but kicking it towards her closet. She slipped into a pair of denim shorts and a baggy, purple, plaid button-up under a short brown, pleather jacket. She was about to run back out of the house but something caught her eye. The locket had fallen out of her bag when thrown onto the bed. There was a little hesitation in her, but she grabbed it and found a black, sparkly purse to stuff it into, not quite ready to wear it proudly. She zipped it up and adjusted the large bow on the front before slinging it over her shoulder and attempting to get out of the house without anyone noticing.
“Mia!” her mother called just as she opened the door. She froze, as much as she wanted to make a run for it. “I asked you to do the dishes!”
“I know, mom, but I have a paper to write, I need to go to the library!” She lied, then ran out before her mother could say anything else. She sighed once the door was closed, then took off. She’d been lying. There was no paper. She didn’t need to go to the library. But she decided she would. There was nowhere else she had to be, after all.
“Mia!” She heard her name again, but this time it wasn’t her mother. She turned her head a spotted a familiar face running up to her.
“Hey, Tess.” She greeted her bleach-blonde friend, stopping to let her catch her breath.
“Where are you headed??” She promptly prodded.
“Just the library.”
Tess shook her head, angelic curls bouncing around her face. “The gang’s going out for smoothies, you should come with!”
Mia smiled. Maybe this was just what she needed right now. Hopefully it would take her mind off of everything, it was starting to drive her crazy. She nodded “Let’s go!” Tess linked arms with her and began chattering away as she led her friend to the small diner they went to get smoothies.
…
“Look who I found~!” Tess announced as they met their friends at a corner booth. “Ben, scoot.” She demanded, and the redhead complied, making room for both Tess and Mia to sit. But just as she was sitting down, while her friends were still greeting her, a cloaked figured flickered into the middle of the diner. He snapped his fingers and the doors slammed closed, quickly grabbing everyone’s attention.
“Hey there, boys and girls,” A venomous voice came from the figure “What a lovely bunch here today, I hope you don’t mind if I borrow something from each and every one of you!”He snapped his fingers a second time and a portal opened up behind him, a hideous beast stepping out of it, an eyeless creature with three rows of sharp teeth, large wings in place of arms, with purple smoke spewing out of large pores on its back. “I’ll leave this to you…” the cloaked figure said, and as quickly as he’d appeared, he had disappeared.
As the sealed diner filled with smoke, panic ensued with people stumbling over each other, trying to get away from the monster. Mia’s friends weren’t unlike the rest of the diner. She’d been shoved back out of the booth as her friends rushed to get out “Mia, come on!” Tess urged.
“I’m right behind you!” She assured her friend and Tess turned to make her way toward the exit, Mia following closely behind until the smoke thickened too much to see her hand in front of her face.
“Sailor Leo,”
That voice again! She stopped dead in her tracks. ‘Who are you?’ She had to ask while she had the chance.
“There’s no time for that now. You know what to do.”
She hadn’t got her answer, but the voice was right, she heard the monster let out a screech, followed by the frightened screams of the people in the diner. She reached into her purse and pulled out the locket “Leo power!” The smoke gave her cover, so nobody would know her identity. “Stop right there!”
She faced the direction she heard the monster’s screeches coming from, but she couldn’t see a thing. ‘Where is that birdbrain?’ she thought, and her answer came swiftly with a gale knocking her back into the wall of the diner. “Shit…”she groaned with a wince, getting back on her feet. “I don’t even know where he’s coming from…” she thought aloud.
A screech sounded from right beside her and she reacted quickly, stepping out of his way and, reaching an arm out to feel for him, sent a well-aimed kick to his side. He was knocked back, but still on his feet, almost un-phased. She didn’t know how she was supposed to stop him.
The next second she heard a huge crash come from the other side of the diner. “You should leave these poor people alone.” A calm, soothing voice. The smoke started to clear up a little, enough for Mia to see a silhouette across the room. “I am the sailor soldier of silence, destruction, of death and birth! I fight for love and justice, and in the name of Saturn, I won’t let you hurt anymore innocent people!” Once she was finished talking the smoke had cleared enough to see that it was Sailor Saturn speaking. It was also now clear that one of the windows had been broken to allow people, and the smoke, out, and nearly everyone had cleared out. The only people left were Mia, Sailor Saturn, and a few people lying on the floor. Whether they were okay or not, she wasn’t sure.
The monster flapped its large feathered wings to send a gale towards Saturn, and in response she raised her glaive. “Silence wall!” A purple light shot out of her glaive, creating a barrier in front of her and completely negating the attack.
“Sailor Leo, use your power!”
As if it had just been beamed into her head, Mia suddenly knew just what to do “Leo solar flames,” she shouted, holding her hands out while a ball of bright, shining flames built up, floating over her hands. “Roar!” She controlled the flames in both hands and swung them back to her right side, letting go with her left hand, and launching the flames like a bowling ball towards the monster. And as soon as they left her hands, they took on a life of their own, vaguely taking on the shape of a lion’s head, mouth open as if to eat the monster. But just as the flames were about to sink their teeth in, the monster ducked down then leapt out of the way, taking to flying.
The flames continued straight for Sailor Saturn, but her barrier stopped them instantly. With one flap of his giant wings, the monster shot up out of the diner, busting a hole through the roof. “Don’t let him get away!” Saturn followed after him and Leo followed suit, the two of them leaping out through the hole and landing on the roof above, the monster turning his non-sights on the people who had fled earlier. “I’ll stop him, you hit him with another attack!” Leo nodded and Saturn jumped into the monster’s path, halting him momentarily as she erected another barrier. And Leo launched another attack, this time it connected and the monster fell to the ground.
Sailor Leo sighed in relief. It looked like he was down for the count. “Th-” Before she could even finish thanking Saturn for the help, a screech emitted from the monster and it began to stir again.
“Get back!” Saturn raised her glaive and Leo complied with her urged demand. “Press crusher!” She spun her glaive around and to spiraling energies rushed towards the monster. She then stopped the glaive, pointing the blade at the monster and a purple beam of energy followed between the spiraling white energy. It widened and as the purple energy formed a ball, the white energies circled around it. When it hit the winged monster it let out one last screech as it dissolved, leaving behind the same black, heart-shaped gem as the other monster. Saturn approached it and, as she had done before, smashed it with the blade of her glaive.
It certainly made Mia feel useless, she hadn’t been able to dissolve the monster. Sailor Saturn gave her a nod and Mia walked over to her. “How did you learn to destroy them?” she asked. What if she ended up on a one-on-one battle with one of these things and nobody showed up to help? She needed to know how to stop them on her own.
Saturn smiled. “In time, you will find a way,” The way she said it made it seem like she knew a whole lot more than she was telling. “You’re the first of the zodiac soldiers to awaken, the first thing you need to do, is locate your teammates. But until then,” she held out something that looked like a very simplistic, and cutesy, communicator. “Take this. If you are ever in need of help, you can call Sailor Moon’s team and me with this.”
“Aren’t you a part of her team??”
“Not technically.” Sailor Leo took the communicator. “Take care, Sailor Leo, and remember, we’re never far if you’re in a sticky situation.”
“Thank you.”
19 Days ago
“These guys are getting tougher.”
“They’re tactics are changing too. They’re not trying to attack large groups anymore, now they’re singling people out."
“Don’t forget that hooded creep at the diner. Who was he?”
“Probably our new enemy…”
Mia wasn’t a part of the conversation, but she listened intently. She was still new to this, still trying to figure all of this out. The other scouts were helpful, but it wasn’t like she had a whole lot of time to ask them questions and whatnot.
“Whatever’s going on, we need to stop it.”
“Maybe Luna and Artemis found something, we should get back.”
And it looked like it was time to say goodbye. “By the way, Sailor Leo,” Before she even had a chance to move her feet, she’d been stopped. “Who are you?”
It caught her off guard. Clearly they all knew each others’ identities, but not hers. And for a reason. It wasn’t that she didn’t like or trust them, she just wanted a little privacy. “I’m not ready to tell you yet.” She told them softly. They might not have liked her answer, but they accepted it.
6 Days ago
“I’ve spoken to my team.”
It caught Mia’s attention, but she wasn’t sure where this was going. “Yeah?”
Saturn nodded absentmindedly. “Two of them anyways. We’re going to help you try to find your team.” Leo smiled, probably relieved that she was no longer on her own at this, although Sailor Saturn had always intended on helping her. “As it is, you don’t have the power to defeat hope-suckers on your own, and they have been appearing increasingly more. Unfortunately we don’t have any way to find them until they’ve awakened.”
“So what do we do?”
“The zodiac soldiers were meant to work in teams of three. Your powers are strongest combined amongst the three of you. We’re hoping that means that you will be connected to them on some level. Maybe now that you’ve reawakened, the other two will do so shortly as well.”
“So, just wait and hope?” She sighed. If only the voice in her head would actually talk to her, and answer her questions. But she hadn’t heard it in almost two weeks.
Saturn nodded. “The other two are searching to see if any of them have become sailor scouts again. Maybe we just haven’t run into them yet. But until we find them, I’ll never be too far, so don’t hesitate to call for back-up if you’re in trouble. Sailor scouts should have each others’ backs, after all.” A warm reassuring smile was the last thing she offered Leo before leaving.
Now
Mia stood against the wall outside of the door of the classroom, fingers playing with the locket worn around her neck. She watched as her fellow students filed out of the classroom, keeping in mind what Sailor Saturn had said and, even though she wasn’t going to be able to tell a sailor scout in passing, watched her classmates curiously, wondering if maybe one of them would turn out to be one. She saw a couple of her friends approaching her. Could one of them be a sailor scout? “Hey, Liv, Tess.” she greeted with a smile. “Wanna go get something to eat before the game?” she suggested.
...
The crowd was going crazy as the team scored a touchdown with less than a minute left in the fourth quarter. The entire game had been neck-and-neck and for a while it looked like the game would go into overtime, but now the team had pulled ahead, and with less than a minute left the other team would need an awful lot of luck to score again. Mia, Tess and Liv were up on their feet cheering with the rest of their schoolmates, huddled together for warmth. “Oh look, here he goes!” Tess shouted over the crowd. Another of their group of friends, was up to kick. “Go Keegan!!!” she shouted as loud as she could, as if he would be able to hear her over all the noise in the stands.
The players, all on one side of the field, with Keegan behind them, ball set up for the kick, suddenly split into two lines, one on each side of the field. And Keegan ran up to the ball only to send it flying across the field. Both teams went into action, the home team running out onto the field to stop any forward movement, and the visitors getting ready to protect their runner. The ball was caught and the player started running, evading some of the home team’s defense. The clock hit zero and just after the runner was tackled to the ground. And the stands started cheering again.
…
The majority of people had made their way out of the stands, but the girls had waited behind so they wouldn’t have to fight the crowd to get out. Liv zipped her jacket up and hugged her arms to her body. “Aren’t you two freezing??” She asked her friends, who weren’t wearing jackets at all.
Mia shrugged, holding onto a hot chocolate. “It’s not that bad. The hot chocolate helped too. Are you sure you don’t want any?” She asked again, but just as she had before, Liv refused the drink. Tess, on the other hand, took the drink right out of Mia’s hands and took a sip.
“Well if Miss Skin-and-Bones doesn’t want any, that means more for us.”
The redhead smiled and got to her feet. “We should probably get going, lets go see if they’re done yet.” She suggested, referring to two of their friends that were on the team and whether or not they were finished showering, changing, having a pow-wow, or whatever it was they did after a game.
The three girls descended the bleachers and jumped down onto the field to walk the rest of the way to the gate on the track, chattering away as they walked towards the boys’ locker room.
