SAILOR MOON H EPISODE 3-A TIME FOR REFLECTION Out of the thousands of chirping crickets in a seemingly endless field of darkness, Skyler's gasp of surprise was barely heard. She had been watching the night sky from her backyard. The sky was clear, and littered with millions of stars. Skyler had seen shooting stars all the time, but she had never seen something as stunning as this. A huge comet-like object was still streaking across the sky, nearly as bright as the moon and leaving a diamond trail of sparks that fell like snow. Each piece shimmered with a perfect shine, then falling into darkness as if they were settling to sleep for the night. This ideal night- and now this awesome view of outer space, right from her backyard. This opportunity was too rare to be missed. Skyler decided to head down to a place she could see this thing clearly before it disappeared. She didn't bother to ask her parents, too much time would be wasted and the comet might go away. Besides, it wasn't that far to where she wanted to go. She clapped on her rollerblades and raced off to inner Galesburg. To her relief, the comet was still there by the time she reached the airport. She hopped right into her sandals and dashed off into the corn, which was a few feet above her head at this time of year. But that was all right, she knew exactly where she was going. A tower stood between the edges of the cornfield and the forest. There was a light on up there- someone was watching the sky. It was late, but Skyler was not surprised. Galesburg was one of the ideal places to see stars. They were quite far away from any major cities with their light pollution, and not many people in the town worked at night. She climbed the steps and entered the small building. This was the observatory- tiny, but it was better than nothing. There was a pretty powerful telescope in there, anyway. And a few chairs. Tonight, someone was already looking through the telescope. A tall, skinny young man, with shocking hazel eyes and the thing that gave him away- his unusually shiny silver hair. His hands moved expertly around the telescoped controls, despite the sudden movement, his loose clothes didn't make a sound. "Hey Adrian" Skyler greeted. He glanced up at her, and a slight smile showed. "Skyler, do your parents know you're out here?" Skyler's face flushed. "N-no- hey wait a minute! Since when am I your responsibility?" He chuckled. "Well, if it's alright for 19-year-old rocket scientists to be out at this time, I guess it's OK for a future Navy SEAL to be too." Skyler returned his laugh with a giggle. "I don't wanna be a SEAL, just a pilot. The Blue Angels." "OK, whatever. Just don't beat me up when you come back." "Whatcha doing?" "Still looking for something new-" he backed up from the scope for a minute and walked to the other side of the room. "That's nearly impossible with this equipment. I gotta get out of this town-" "You wanna see something new?" Skyler led him outside. The comet was still there, streaking around near the horizon. Adrian's eyes lit up, and he rushed back to the telescope. He quickly adjusted the lenses and direction, with Skyler watching from the door. Every time she saw him here, he always worked with such determination and skill, and she knew he had always wanted to be an astronomer. But he never had the money to get the right schooling. He had been saving for a while, though it was early on, he wanted to get going towards his dream. "C'mere, I got it" he said, motioning for Skyler. She peered into the lens. The light was much more intense through this thing, and she backed up. "Know what, I'm just gonna look at the stars over here-" As she sat down in one of the chairs, she noticed some of the stars sticking out in a triangle-like formation. It was lower on the horizon, and for some reason Skyler couldn't take her eyes away. "Hey Adrian- have you seen these stars before?" He came over and put his eye by her shoulder to see where she was pointing. "Yeah. That's Aquila, the Eagle. Comes out in the summertime. Why, you like eagles?" Skyler froze. Aquila was a constellation?! Did that mean that she was an alien? All these questions ran through her mind while Adrian watched with his distant smile. She realized he was staring at her. "Um, yeah actually" she replied, returning the smile. "Well, I'm not you dad, but I think you should go on home, anyway. Your parents might worry about you." Skyler decided to take up his advice this time. She had other things on her mind now- she had heard of the Sailor Scouts, Sailor Moon and Sailor V, but she didn't give a thought to their names. She didn't know of a constellation named V, anyway- it was all questions for Orion. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Orion just happened to be gazing at the sky when she arrived home. He sat on a low-hanging wind-chime, eyeing the sky sideways like her parakeets always did. The parakeets watched him with interest, clinging to the side of the cage with their little pink claws. He saw them out the other eye, but didn't say anything. "Orion-" Skyler's tone was slightly annoyed. He flicked his head towards her. "Those can break really easily, you know." With one last glimpse at the stars, he fluttered to the floor and marched over to her. He didn't say anything, which made Skyler somewhat uneasy, but eagles weren't supposed to talk in the first place. It was still a little weird to see that. "So, see anything?" The "golden" eagle moved his head from side to side. Skyler took that as a no. "Orion--" she said again, this time hesitating. "Are the Sailor Scouts- are they from outer space?" Orion looked at her sharply. His normal expression was so-- scary. Skyler felt like she might have asked a bad question. But he laughed, giving some softness to his frozen stare. "I'll have to check up on that-" "Well, I got school tomorrow. Good night." Orion watched her until she turned the lights out, then took a perch on the windowsill again. On the outside, his face remained in its stern, unmoving glare, but anyone who looked in his eyes could see a reflection of concern. A reflection of a giant silver comet, disappearing over the horizon. 'I don't want to start anything yet" he decided. "It's too early to suspect- but I don't have a good feeling about this--" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "I'm serious!" Karen's friend Carly yelled. "I swear, I know what I saw!" "Chill out ^_^()" Karen told her. "It's just a little thing-" "Yeah, but I'd think we'd know that person-" Skyler mumbled. She suddenly perked up. "Maybe it's like a long lost sister or something!" "Or an evil twin" Karen added, an eerie shadow across her eyes. Carly sighed. "Look guys, I saw it down by the town square- someone who looked EXACTLY like me. Everything. My hair, my eyes, my clothes- it's sooo weird. And I'm going to find out who it was." "Hey, I saw one too!" another girl, Sara, just happened to pass by their table. Carly glanced up threateningly, her purple eyes flashing under her thin blond bangs. "Are you making fun of me?" Sara stopped and sat down at the table. "No way. But no one believes me either." "Maybe someone's playing tricks" Karen suggested, half lost in thought. Skyler then noticed Orion watching from the window. This seemed to be a signal. "Umm, I'll be right back guys-" Orion greeted her at the front door. Fortunately there didn't seem to be anyone around. "What? This is going to be really hard if you keep calling me in the wrong times. If someone sees me talking to you-" "Relax" Orion reassured. "There's no one around here, and this is important. I overheard the conversation about the 'twins'. There's something more to it- many other people have been talking about this." "So what? It's not doing anything" Skyler sighed. "It's like the ghost stories about the old buildings. They'll come and go-" Orion turned a half-closed eye to her. "Ever think those stories might have come from something as well?" "I'll keep an eye out" Skyler told him, but she really didn't plan on it. She didn't think anything was wrong. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Her curious silver eyes scanned the midnight sky, but still no signs of that comet she had seen the night before. She decided to keep her eyes on the road. After all, if it had been moving as slow as it had been the night before, there was no rush. And she knew Adrian was going to be there again. But strangely enough, the lights were out at the observatory. Skyler stopped, and climbed the stairs. No one was there, except a owl sitting on a rafter. She opened her mouth, but realized what she was doing and quickly shut it. 'What am I doing? Owls can't talk. Orion's messing up my mind already-' With that, she turned and headed back down the long, dark road towards home. As she left, the owl's eyes glimmered with an odd blue light- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 'What's going on here?' Skyler wondered as she entered the classroom. Rows of empty desks awaited her in the room. The weather was one of the warmest days of the year, but as soon as she had come into the schoolyard a coldness had rushed up on her, and she thought about turning back. But she didn't. 'Is it Saturday?' she thought, blushing a bit. No, it couldn't have been, she reasoned. Her father worked at home on the weekends, and she remembered him taking off this morning. She decided not to waste any more time, after all, if no one was going to show up, she might as well leave. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ She slid into her sandals as she arrived on her front porch. "Mom? Mom! Is today a-?" She screeched to a halt as she arrived in the kitchen, and her eyes grew wide at what she saw. "MOM?!" Her mother seemed the same, except for two things. She was staring obsessively at a mirror, not moving, not even breathing. And second, her skin had turned a shiny silver. That wasn't all, as soon as she heard Skyler's voice, she turned and and tossed a kitchen knife at her. Skyler screamed and ducked out of the way, then raced out of the house. Orion landed on her shoulder, startling another scream out of her. "You have to leave town!" he instructed. "Huh? Why?" "Remember that silver comet? My premonitions were right! That's what happened to your mother, to the whole town! Someone did this- transform and fall back until we can figure out what we're going to do." "But I can't just leave everyone-" "You have to. They'll be fine." "Fine-" Skyler agreed reluctantly. "Eagle Star Power!" Once again came that incredible rush of energy, and there stood Sailor Aquila in full uniform. Along with the energy came a different sense- something was happening, not too far away- "Orion, the enemy is at the observatory" she concluded, racing off. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The girl pushed her long, aqua-colored hair back behind her shoulders, her light turquiose eyes running along the horizon. "Where are they-" she sighed. She paced impatiently, her heavy boots pounding the floor. She adjusted the collar of her sailor outfit and sat down. "They're on this planet, at least- but where?" "Hey you!" someone called. The girl turned to see a silhouette standing in the corner. "I don't know what's going on here, but this is MY town, and you're not taking control of it's people. In the name of freedom, I am Sailor Aquila, here to bring harmony back to the world!" Aquila flipped on a lightswitch. "Huh? 0 0() Orion, is she a Sailor Scout" she asked at the sight of the girl. "Augh, another Sailor" the girl sighed. "And a pushy one at that. Kalaide, make sure she falls to the mirror comet as well." A figure leaped down from the ceiling, a familiar one- Aquila stepped back a few paces. "Adrian?!" He did look like Adrian, with a few added features- completely silver skin, a mirror shield melded to one arm and a cannon on the other. The girl disappeared without a word. Orion flew up to help the confused Aquila. "It's a Harmony" he informed her. "Try to calm it down." "Oh, right. RAZOR FEATHER FLURRY!" A smile appeared on Kalaide's face, and he raised the mirror shield. The feather bounced off like pinballs. Aquila shrieked. "Oh great, now what?! Orionnnnnnnn!!!!!" "It's just a shield!" he yelled. "Get around it!" "Oh-ohkay-" She jumped off to the side, then tried to fake him out by constantly changing direction. But it was like his shield was magnetized to her. Everywhere she went she was met by her own reflection. 'Don't panic' she told herself. 'There's gotta be another way-' Then she felt a strange sensation near her feet. She couldn't tell what part it was coming from- until she discovered the wings on her shoes had unfolded. "Umm, Orion? Are these wings- part of me?" she asked with a nervous smile. "You can feel them, can't you?" She quickly reached down to them and brushed the top with her gloves. The sensation startled her- she could actually feel through the wing! She felt the glove brush across a few more times. This was real- She ducked just out of the way of a laser beam, and turned. The wings flexed automatically, and she soared over Kalaide as if she had done it a hundred times before. Then, she tried again. "RAZOR FEATHER FLURRY!" Kalaide screeched as the feathers caught him right upside the head and knocked him to the floor. Orion quickly swooped down and activated his star symbol. With a flash, a water Harmony appeared on the floor. "The owner is over here" Orion told her, picking up the crystal and leading her to a corner. There was Adrian. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "I can't believe this, Adrian!" Skyler exclaimed. "You're going to school!" "Yep!" he said with a huge smile. "That piece of silver I found when I woke up was worth enough, so I guess I won't see you out here anymore. I'll write to you sometime, 'K? But I'd better go home for now. Bye, Sky!" Skyler waved to him, then turned her eyes to the sky. Even though the whole town had been puzzled about a few lost hours, it was all worth it to see one person's dream come true, even though he didn't know who helped him. "Sailor Aquila has saved the night- but what's next?" THE END