A Bad Start

          Saphrina swore eloquently as Rax and Dain watched her reaction. They had just finished telling her about the second senshi that had appeared the night before. Afraid for their lives, the two assistants had spent most of the night devising a plan for attacking the senshi before returning. They hoped that presenting a solution would calm the livid woman. But the shack-turned-headquarters shook as Saphrina stalked back and forth, cursing everything from Queen Beryl and the dead generals to her brother Rubius. Rax and Dain stood in the middle of the room, hoping that the fear they were feeling didn't show too much. Saphrina turned to face them.
          "Now what!?" she seethed, a strand of black hair getting caught in her mouth. "We have two senshi!! This was supposed to be easy!!" she raged. Dain watched her carefully as she shook her fist at the roof of the shack and shrieked with disgust. Then he cleared his throat softly to catch her attention.
          "Saphrina -"
          "WHAT!?" she screamed. Dain felt his stomach twist, but continued.
          "Rax and I have been discussing this all night, and it seems that we haven't ever had the element of surprise during our attempts," he kept his voice steady, hoping she wouldn't turn on him. Chills ran down his back as she stared at him coldly.
          "Go on," she said, her voice deadly.
          "Well, at both youma attacks, the Sailor Senshi with the braid - Quasar, I think - was already there, ready to fight."
          Saphrina considered this for a moment before responding. "So, it looks like we have nothing better to do than follow her around."
          Dain stood silent for a minute, slightly confused because that wasn't what he'd been trying to point out. But now that she'd said it, it did look that way. "Well..." he started, but Saphrina held up a hand that told him to stop. Silence hung heavily in the shack for a few minutes as Saphrina considered her own comment. Finally, she broke into a hideous laugh.
          "I can't believe we've let the appearance of two girls, children!, distract us from our mission here. I knew you'd be good for something, Dain," Saphrina smiled coldly at him. He shivered inwardly. "We need to put everything back into perspective," she began to pace the room again, this time somewhat slower than before. "We need to focus on what our goal is here, and that is to weaken this side of Earth so that Tokyo will fall faster. The presence of two annoying senshi brats shouldn't keep us from succeeding. Now, any suggestions for a new strategy would be helpful..." she trailed off as she eyed her two accomplices.

          Erika exited out of her e-mail program, slightly disappointed. Oh well, at least Ami had finally written her back. It was too bad that they weren't able to meet in chat rooms anymore. Ami was constantly busy now-days, and didn't have the time that was required for browsing the internet. But then, Erika couldn't say that she had a lot of time on her hands either. Not with her training and being a Sailor Senshi anyway. She smiled to herself at that thought.
          I wonder what Ami would think if I told her that I am now a Sailor Senshi. A small laugh escaped her. She'd probably think I was insane.
          Erika turned from the computer in her father's den and walked into the living room. Katja should be calling her any minute about their plans for going dancing tonight. Erika had left her a message earlier about bringing Karin along, and hopefully, everything would go smoothly. I hope that whatever this evil is will be considerate enough to let me have fun. She rubbed her splinted-and-slung left arm gingerly. The hairline fracture just below her elbow wasn't bad enough to require a cast, but it looked silly hanging in the blue sack-like material that hung over her shoulder. Her mother had practically gone berserk when she and Karin had come back with her arm all bundled like this. But a quick story about tripping on some loose cobblestone had calmed her to a state of mild panic. After that, she, Karin and Cynthia had all gone to her room to talk about Karin's newly-remembered powers...

          "Okay, okay, wait. This is all so sudden, let me clarify a few things. I or rather my soul is a princess that lived a thousand years ago... on the moon!" Karin let out a small laugh, and shot an incredulous glance at Erika who chuckled too. The three of them were sitting on the floor in Erika's bedroom discussing Karin's past. "But before that, I lived on a star!!" Karin rolled her eyes. "I mean, do you have to be an idiot not to realize how ridiculous this sounds, or is it just me?" she snorted.
          Cynthia let out one of her exasperated sighs that Erika was getting used to hearing. "Well, if all of this is so impossible, then how do you explain the fact that I can talk? Or the fact that you, Karin, are a sailor senshi? Or that monster that attacked us in the square!?" Cynthia's voice grew louder with each question until her voice cracked with a yowl on "square."
          Karin stopped mid-laugh and looked at the cat in surprise. She held her expression for a minute and then slumped her shoulders in defeat. "I dunno," she mumbled. It took all the self-control Erika had to keep from bursting out laughing...

          Erika smiled to herself at the memory of last night's conversation. It had taken Cynthia a good two hours to convince Karin that she was telling the truth, and that her memories hadn't been "projected" into her mind by Cynthia's mind-touch trick. By the time Karin had decided she believed the cat, it had been late enough that Erika had to sneak her out of the house. Silently, she hoped that Karin still believed everything about her past.

          Karin hauled herself out from under her down comforter and blinked in the bright light of her room. She looked over at the clock and rubbed her eyes a few times before she realized that it did indeed say "12:30." Wonderful. She'd slept half the day away, and it was too late to take a jog. Pushing a damp and matted strand of hair out of her face, she slowly stood up from her bed and stretched hard. Vaguely, she wondered why her mother hadn't come to wake her earlier. Karin never slept this late, even when she wanted to. But last night had been filled with bizarre dreams and long-forgotten voices from her past. Her past. It was true. That talking cat, and all that story telling had been enough to really shake her up. It was going to take some time to get used to all of this. She looked down at the beautiful ring on her right middle finger...
          "Karin? Are you up?" a light knock on the door caused Karin to jump. Quickly, she untwisted her pajama bottoms and T-shirt, and then opened the door. Her mother stood looking at her with a worried expression on her face.
          "Oh, Karin. Are you alright?" Her mother asked as she saw the dark circles under her daughter's eyes, and her damp-from-sweat matted hair. "You look like you had a bad night. Do you feel okay?"
          Karin yawned hard and pushed her waist-length dark brown hair out of her face. "Mm hmm," she squeaked. She turned from the doorway and walked over to her window, opening it to let in a fresh breeze. Her mother followed her into the room.
          "I let you sleep because I heard you come in so late last night. Where were you for so long?" Karin cringed inside. She really didn't want to deal with this now, but she might as well get it over with.
          "I ended up running into a friend from school, and we went to her house. We were talking and lost track of the time. I'm sorry I didn't call," she explained quickly.
          "What friend?"
          "Erika... um..." Karin thought for a minute, trying to clear the sleepy fog from her brain. "Erika... uh... Fischer. Erika Fischer." Her mother looked confused.
          "Have I met her before?"
          Karin yawned again. "No. We've only been friends for a short while." Yeah, a whole day, she added to herself. "It was kind of a coincidence that I ran into her outside of school."
          "Oh," her mother nodded vaguely, and her eyes began to glaze over like she knew Karin wasn't telling her everything. But before she could pry further, the phone rang. She stood up quickly and patted Karin's shoulder. "Why don't you get showered, and I'll fix you something to eat. Then you can tell me more about Erika, alright?" she smiled and hurried from the room so she wouldn't miss the call.
          Karin grimaced to herself as she leaned against the window sill. "Yeah, that's exactly what I want to do," she grumbled.

          About 45 minutes later, Karin made her way down the narrow stairway and into the small kitchen. Her hair was still damp from her shower, but she felt - and looked - a lot better. Her mother set a plate of bread, meats and cheeses in front of her and sat down in the chair across from her.
          "So, who called?" Karin asked, as she stuffed the first piece of cheese into her mouth.
          "Erika, the girl you were telling me about," her mother smiled. Karin raised her eyebrows in surprise.
          "Really?" she bit into a piece of bread.
          "She wanted to know if you were still interested in going dancing tonight with them," her mother's eyes sparkled. Karin could tell she was pleased that her daughter was finally "socializing," and she nodded as she chewed.
          "She wants you to call back, and she left her number." Karin finally swallowed her mouthful and glanced at the phone. Sure enough, a sticky-paper with a number scribbled on it was stuck to the receiver.
          "Great," Karin smiled back at her mother. "I'll call her as soon as I'm finished eating."
          "Good. In the mean time, you can tell me all about her," her mother rested her chin on her folded hands, getting ready for a gossip session. Karin groaned silently to herself, wishing that she could somehow avoid the thorough interrogation she was about to go through.

          Six o'clock finally arrived. Erika and Karin sat on the porch of Erika's house waiting for Katja, Brita and Liesel to arrive. The two of them had been talking about the night before while Erika had pulled all of her hair into a crown braid, and Karin was finally working out some of the questions she'd had. The whole situation was now starting to excite her. She loved a good adventure, and wanted to prove herself to Erika and Cynthia.
          "Hey girls!! Let's go dancing!!" Brita was hanging out the passenger-side window of the approaching car, waving wildly. Erika heard Karin laugh, and turned to see a look of pure amusement on her face.
          Good, I want her to have fun, Erika smiled to herself. The car stopped just long enough for the two of them to jump in to the already-crowded back seat. As they squashed themselves along-side the three other girls (Liesel, her younger sister and friend), there was a chorus of "hi"s and quick introductions all around. Liesel introduced her sister Marion and her friend Trina. Marion smiled broadly and blushed when her name was mentioned and Trina waved as she was introduced. Then Erika introduced Karin to the group, who smiled and mentioned that some of them looked familiar. Then Katja set the car-full screaming as she popped the clutch and squealed away from Erika's house. Brita leaned out the window again, her blond hair flapping all around her, and let out a wild "YAAAAHOOOO!!!!" as they headed down the street.

          The line outside the dance club was enormously long, even at such an early time in the evening. Brita and Katja were already dancing to the loud beat that was coming from the open doors - the two of them were pretty much in their own world at this point. Erika and Karin were chatting with Liesel, Marion and Trina as they slowly inched their way forward in the line.
          "So where do you go to school, then, Trina?" Karin asked the short strawberry-blond girl standing next to Liesel.
          "I go to the Hamburg Gymnasium in the middle of town. I was friends with Marion before their family moved out to Gottlieb, and we've just stayed friends ever since," she smiled and giggled. Marion giggled with her. Erika could tell she was a little intimidated by Karin's height and age.
          "So, what's you're favorite subject in school?" Karin asked.
          "Um," Trina paused for a minute, wracking her brain for her favorite - or easiest - class. "Uh, well, art I guess," she shrugged and giggled again.
          "Mine too," Marion giggled with her. "It's the only one that's really easy." More giggles. Erika felt herself getting impatient with all of the giggling that was going on. She wondered if Karin was too.
          "Oh, hey! Do you want some gum?" Marion chirped as she dug into her small purse. "It's that fruity kind," she held up a brightly-colored pack to Karin and Erika.
          "No thanks," Erika shook her head, and Karin waved her hand in dismissal. "Maybe later." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Karin give her a glance as she turned to face forward. Erika turned around too.
          "Fruity is right," Karin mumbled quietly, so that only Erika would hear. Erika snickered softly. "We might want to stay away from the junior crowd if we ever want to get asked to dance."
          Erika nodded in agreement. "Liesel is really cool, but I don't know where her sister came from. She's completely opposite of Liesel, and I'm not sure that I like her much."
          "How long have you known Liesel?" Karin asked.
          "About a year."
          "Have you met Miss Fruity-Gum before?"
          "Yeah, but I don't remember her acting like that," Erika answered. She turned around as she noticed that the girls behind them had gotten quiet. Marion was holding a small mirror while Trina brushed her hair, and Liesel was looking at the people around them.
          "Hey, could I use the brush when you're finished?" Karin asked, smiling sweetly at Trina.
          "Sure!" Trina chirped. Then she looked up at Karin's face and saw the obviously-fake smile. Her happy expression vanished. "What?" she asked.
          Karin's eyes grew big with surprise and she shook her head. "Nothing," she answered. "I just want to use the brush."
          "Okay," Trina looked uncomfortable as she passed the brush to Karin. Liesel watched the two of them and shook her head at Erika.
          Oh, no. This might not have been a very good idea, Erika groaned to herself.