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Hotaru felt the surge of power course through her veins as the
purple silk ribbons flew from her power stick and wrapped around her. A
flood of memories of her past life as a princess of the planet Saturn during
the Silver Millennium assaulted her brain. A pool of knowledge entered
her brain, unleashing the true powers of the Sailor of Rebirth.
When the transformation ended, Hotaru was wearing the dark purple
uniform of Sailor Saturn: dark purple boots, white gloves lined in purple,
white body suit, dark purple short skirt, purple choker/collar, earrings,
and a tiara studded with a single purple gem. A purple bow was on the back
of her waist and a larger bow was attached to the front of her body suit.
The only variation in her uniform to all the other Scouts’ clothes was
that her body suit had feathery shoulder pads on it.
“Whoa,” Hotaru said dumbly, looking herself over. Luna smiled
at the female warrior.
“Luna,” Hotaru said to the black cat, her memories of the Silver
Millennium and her past life fully returned to her. “Long time no see,”
“We can reminisce later, Sailor Saturn. The Scouts need you.”
Sailor Saturn nodded, turned, and jumped through the window,
running as fast as her frail body could carry her.
The Guardian was standing in a nearby alley. He didn’t want to
get involved. He knew that something was spying on him. He could feel it.
He wanted to help them, but couldn’t. He couldn’t compromise the Shadow
Hunters’ secrecy on this planet.
“Where is that Guardian?” the master bellowed, frustrated. He
wanted to see Guardian’s fighting abilities, not watch a bunch of weakling
kids fight a useless monster.
“He can sense us watching him,” the apprentice stated, matter-of-factly.
The master gave his apprentice a look that prompted him to continue.
“He’s waiting for us to stop watching him,” the apprentice clarified,
“He can’t give out the Shadow Hunters. If he steps out into the open, he
will give us the perfect opportunity to study his fighting skills. Fighting
skills that are trained only to Shadow Hunters. He can’t compromise those
battle secrets.”
“I understand now. You have grown in both intelligence and wisdom,
apprentice,” the master congratulated.
Sailor Saturn reached the other Scouts, who all looked at the
transformed Hotaru with stunned expressions.
“Hotaru?” Sailor Moon said incredulously.
“Hi, Serena!” Saturn returned, “Or should I say, Princess Serena,”
At that moment, all of the Scouts, cats, and masked hero remembered
the frail, but brave Princess Saturn. Sailor Moon smiled at Saturn.
“Yo!” Masenko roared, “I feel neglected back here! Mind fighting
me already?” The monster charged, running full out, spikes leading.
Tuxedo Mask threw a rose at the monster, which simply bounced
off one of its spikes. The Scouts, cats, and masked hero jumped to the
sides, dodging the monster’s charge. Masenko skidded to a stop, turned,
and rushed at Sailor Venus, who was sprawled on the ground. None of the
others were close enough to stop the monster before it got to Venus. And
the blonde girl was too scared to put up a defense.
Seeing Venus in danger, Guardian snapped to full offensive mode.
He disappeared from the alley in a flash. He reappeared right in front
of Venus, adjusting his feet to meet Masenko’s charge.
CRASH!
The two warriors’ hands grasped at his opponents’ hands, trying
to throw the other off balance. The Guardian pushed with all his
might, trying to gain the upper hand, but Masenko would not be swayed and
the contest stayed as a draw.
Venus looked at the Guardian with dreamy eyes, he did, after
all, save her life. Then, to her horror, Masenko threw the Guardian into
the air, and, as he descended back to earth, the monster cruelly kicked
the warrior back up into the air, repeating the process several times before
letting the now-battered warrior crash into the ground. Masenko put his
foot on the Guardian’s back, and pushed down, hard. The pressure nearly
broke the Guardian’s back, but the warrior managed to keep his back from
snapping.
“I can’t watch this,” Sailor Saturn said. She got up and walked
straight for the monster, a white aura lining her body as she moved. She
brought her hands in front of her, palms aimed at Masenko.
“Leave him alone!” Sailor Saturn screamed, unleashing a heavy
barrage of iridescent white energy at from her palms at Masenko. The monster
turned to look at the frail girl, but saw, instead, a blast of white energy.
Masenko was vaporized in an instant.
Saturn fell to her knees, exhausted. The expulsion of such a
blast of energy would have made a healthy person tired, but it made the
frail Saturn downright exhausted. Her Sailor Saturn guise disappeared as
she succumbed to exhaustion.
The Guardian groaned and stood up. Venus got up and went to him,
helping him up. “That girl in the purple suit has quite a punch,” the battered
warrior commented, staring at the burned spot on the road where Masenko
was standing only a few moments before.
The Scouts brought an exhausted Hotaru back to her house, sneaking
in though the window of her room and placing her on her bed. They left
a note saying their thanks for helping them in the fight. Then they left.
The Guardian, to Mina’s dismay, left the group to go and rest, preferring
to heal his wounds on his own.
“Shucks,” Mina said to Serena and the others after the Guardian
had left, “I wouldn’t have minded to take a look at his back wounds,”
“And to take a look and his bare chest while you were at it,”
Raye added with a snicker.
“His ability to take pain is quite commendable,” the apprentice
said with an approving nod.
“He is a Shadow Hunter,” the master replied, as if that explained
everything.
“We didn’t get to see much of his fighting skills,” the apprentice
continued mournfully, “but now we know just how powerful Sailor Saturn
really is,”
“Too bad the two mysterious Scouts didn’t show up,” the master
commented.
The Guardian had found an abandoned warehouse in one of the downtown
districts of Tokyo, and used that as his base of operations. He hadn’t
revealed anything to whoever was watching him, except that he was immensely
strong. He was glad that nothing had been compromised. He took of his shirt,
pulled out a bottle of ointment from his pocket, poured some ointment into
his hands, and started rubbing the liquid onto his back, wincing at the
burning sensation as the ointment started its healing process on his back
wounds. Pocketing the bottle, the Guardian tossed his shirt on top of a
wooden crate and flexed his pectoral muscles, grimacing was he tested his
wounded chest. He hadn’t realized just how badly injured he was.
Oh well, he thought, the ointment only heals open wounds, not bruises.
Besides, one can expect to get hurt as a Shadow Hunter.
End of Wave One