Chapter 2 The night sky was completely void of light, as dark clouds covered the moon and the stars. The town of Sunnydale, California seemed to be asleep. Except for two girls, two guys, and the demons of hell. The two girls were Buffy Summers, and Willow Rosenburg. The two guys were Alexander Harris, close and personal friend of Buffy and Willow, and Rupert Giles. Rupert was the watcher, and everyone in the group called him Giles. Alexander went by Xander (pronounced Zander) to his friends. "Giles." "Yeah." "I don’t think any vampires are here tonight." "Sure they are, Buffy. Just…be patient." At that time, a grotesque figure jumped out from the bushes, and tackled Xander. The figure slapped him with its claws, cutting Xander’s face. "Ow, crap!" "Hang on!" Buffy rushed over, and kicked the figure. It rolled over onto its back, and snarled. Buffy saw its face. It was a vampire, no doubt. The vampire jumped up, and slashed at Buffy. It missed, and Buffy kicked it. She cut the vampire’s face with her high-heeled shoe. She took out her steak, and stabbed the vampire in the heart. It turned into a pile of dust, and Buffy stared at it a second. "Nobody messes with my friends, especially a vamp." Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars, and Tuxedo Mask arrived at the portal about an hour before sunrise. It was unlike anything they had ever seen. It was a brilliant array of yellow, red, blue, and black. The portal swirled around at a rapid rate. Since it was located outside of Tokyo, nobody had seen it yet. It was miles from town, and far off the road. The three girls, and the one man, looked on in awe. It was so mesmerizing. They just stared at it, not knowing what to do. "Wow…" Sailor Moon said. "Hey, Amy, how about scanning that thing?" Tuxedo Mask asked. "OK." Amy tried scanning it with her VR visor. "I can’t. It’s jamming everything up!" "Well, there’s only one way to see exactly where this thing leads now!" Tuxedo Mask said. He took a breath, and leaped into the portal. "Darien!" Sailor Moon followed in a hurry. "Oh, brother!" Raye said. "Well, duty calls." Raye jumped in, and Amy followed her into the unknown…… Antrosis was surprised when three girls and a man fell in front of him. He knew who they were. "Welcome, Sailor Soldiers, and Tuxedo Mask. I must say this…is an honor. It’s not every day that heroes come to me to meet their destruction. Usually I have to go to them to kill them." "So, are we gonna fight, or are you gonna bore us to death?" Sailor Mars asked. "Ooh, a smart-ass. I like that in a victim." "Well, let’s see how like this!" Sailor Mars used her Celestial Fire Surround attack, and it hit Antrosis. He only laughed, as it did not harm him at all. What the hell?" "You are such a fool. Using fire on a creature from HELL! Ha ha! This is going to be fun." "Mercury Ice Storm Blast!!" The attack hit Antrosis with full intensity. It made him fly into a wall, and he was hurt. He slowly stood. "Well, it’s nice to see that there’s ONE smart person in that group. I like that, I really do. But, I have this annoying habit of destroying something I like. Sorry." Antrosis leaped at Sailor Mercury, grabbed her by the throat, and slung her to the ground. This knocked all the air out of her lungs, and she struggled to get air back in. "Sailor Mercury! No!" Sailor Mars rushed over to her. "Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to play favorites," Antrosis said mockingly. He then grabbed Sailor Mars by her hair, and tossed her aside like a rag-doll. "Did that hurt?" "Uunnnnhhh…" Sailor Mars said as she tried to get back up. "I’ll take that as a ‘sort of’" Antrosis said. "OK, who’s next?" Tuxedo Mask saw him looking at Sailor Moon. Just as Antrosis was about to attack, Tuxedo Mask jumped in the way. He received the full force of the blow, and was injured badly. "Darien, NO!" Sailor Moon shouted. "All right, buster! Now I’m mad! In the name of the moon, I will punish you!!" Antrosis smirked. "I think not." Sailor Moon took out her wand. "Ooh, that looks scary," Antrosis said sarcastically. "Moon Scepter Elimination!" The attack hit Antrosis, but had no effect. "Come now. Did you really expect that to kill an undead creature such as myself?" Antrosis moved closer to Sailor Moon. "Now, become a vampire, as I am. Be eternally damned; be condemned to roam the earth searching for blood night after night!" Sailor Moon was scared stiff. She was too scared to even cry. Tuxedo Mask, knowing only that he must protect his love, mustered up enough strength to throw a rose at Antrosis. It hit him, and stunned him. Sailor Moon escaped, and rushed over to Tuxedo Mask. She looked at him with grateful eyes. "Come on, we have to get out of here!" Sailor Moon shouted. Sailors Mercury and Mars managed to limp towards Sailor Moon. The three supported Tuxedo Mask, and managed to get to a portal. They went through it, not knowing that it was not the same one they had entered with… Buffy was making sure that Xander was okay, when a portal opened, and four people poured out. They were all injured, except one, who seemed to be fine. "What the hell?" Buffy nearly shouted. "PLEASE don’t mention hell," Sailor Mars said. "We just came from there." "I find that very unlikely," Rupert Giles said. "You can’t leave hell once you’re there. You might have come from the cross-dimension." "Well, whatever, we need help. Who are you people?" Sailor Mercury asked. "I was going to ask you the same thing," Buffy said, leery of the Girls in mini-skirts, and the man in the tuxedo. "Now is not the time to get to know each other. We’ll help you," Giles said. "Thank you," Sailor Moon said. After all the wounds had been tended to, and introductions made, the eight people sat down at a table in the Sunnydale High Library. They got into a discussion about what was going on. "Well, this is very, uh, simple…to explain," Giles said. "Yeah, and since Giles here usually speaks in big words, I’m gonna tell it," Buffy said. "This is Sunnydale, home the vampires, and all that is undead. I am the chosen one, meaning I have to kill ‘em all. I have help from my friends here. And that about sums it up. So, what are you?" "Well, this is hard to explain, but…we are Sailor Soldiers, sworn defenders of the Earth against all evil. We’re stationed in Tokyo, and we fight evil beings from a place called the Negaverse. Well, that, and pretty much anything else that wants to take over the world, destroy it, etc.," Sailor Moon said. "Well, that’s…unusual," Willow said. "Has anyone ever told you that those skirts don’t exactly make you look like fighters?" Xander asked. All he received were stares from everyone in the room. "I’ll shut up now." "So," Buffy said, "you fight evil. How can we be sure? How do I know that you don’t want to kill me?" "If we wanted you dead, we would have killed you by now," Tuxedo Mask said. "Besides, do we look like vampires to you?" "No. But neither did Angel." "Angel?" Sailor Mercury asked. "Long story," Giles said. "Any way, I believe you. Actually, I’ve read quite a deal about the Negaverse, and the legendary Sailor Soldiers. I thought that’s all it was, though. A legend." "How did you read about us?" "We get newspapers. We have to find out what’s going on in the rest of the world. Sunnydale could use a warning sometimes," Giles said. "Well," Tuxedo Mask said. "Will you help us? We need to find out what’s going on in Tokyo. Maybe you could go back with us." "Oh sure. I’ll just skip school, tell my mom I’m going to Tokyo for a while, and nobody’ll care." "Sounds like a plan to me," Xander said. Again, he got silentstares. "I’ll be leaving now, so I don’t say anything else that’s stupid." "No, stay," Amy said. "You’re a part of this, and we need your help." "I should warn you, I wet my pants when I get really scared." "Xander, shut up," Buffy said. "I didn’t need to know that." "I didn’t say I got scared easily." "Well, I suggest that we find out what’s going on, and act fast. Buffy, you remember when the whole world almost got sucked into hell?" "Yeah, Giles. Why?" "Well, if there’s activity in the cross-dimension, it is very likely that this world is about to go to hell in a hand-basket. We have to act fast." "OK, when do we make our move?" Buffy asked. "We should wait for our friends," Sailor Moon said. "Right. I’ll call them and tell them where we are. They can meet us here using their teleport," Sailor Mercury said. "Whatever, just get them here. I want pay-back for what that ass-hole did," Sailor Mars said. Sailor Moon called Lita and Mina on her communicator. "We have a short time left," Giles said. Antrosis looked at Laura Payne with inquisitive eyes. He was disappointed that she had not been more useful. Still, with the correcttreatment, she could be. "Laura, come here." She did so. "Laura, you have not been very useful. Now, you must be punished." To Be Continued… ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ What will Laura’s fate be? How will Antrosis be beat, if he is beat at all? Where is the cheese-whiz? Answers to these pressing (and not-so-pressing)questions in future episodes! Stay tuned!