Star Squad

Mari sat in class, diligently taking notes when a piece of folded up, duck print paper fell onto her notebook. She stared at it for a few seconds before discreetly picking it up and unfolding it.

Mari-chan, I’m going to go to the library today! LOL, I need to return a book and maybe get a new one. Do you want to go with me??? We can bring the other girls too! It’ll be fun!

Mari looked up and glanced at Momoko who returned her glance with a huge smile and a small wave. Mari simply nodded at her and smiled weakly. Although she enjoyed having a group of friends around her she was still a bit uncomfortable. Coming out of her shell was still a bit hard at times.

***

As soon as it was lunch time Yuki ran out of her classroom and up the stairs that led to the roof of the school, ready to meet her two friends for lunch and get away from the teacher.

After getting up to the roof she sat down and pulled out her bento. By the time the two underclassmen had made it up to the roof she had already made it half way through her rice ball.

“Hi Yu-chan!” Momoko threw her arms around her upperclassman, knocking both of them off balance.

“Ahck! Momo-san get off!” Yuki pushed her off and sat back up.

“Hi Hyousetsuno-chan.” Mari sat down and pulled out her lunch.

“Do you wanna go to the library after school with me and Mari-chan?”

“Yeah, that sounds fun. I need to find something good to ready anyway.”

Momoko let out a joyful giggle as she pulled out her phone, a glittery monkey charm hung from the corner of it. She dialed Sora’s number, put it on speaker and placed it in the middle of the small circle the girls sat in.

“Hi guys!”

“Hi Sora-chan!”

“Sora-san.” Yuki nodded in the phone’s direction while continuing to eat her lunch.

“Hi Kasaino-chan.”

“Ooooh! I really wish I went to school with you guys! I hate that we have to keep calling each other during lunch, I wanna actually see you!”

“Us too, Sora-san.”

“We’re going to the library after school, do you want us to wait for you so you can go too?” Momoko happily chimed in.

“Yes please! I wanna go!”

“Cool! We’ll wait for you outside the library.” Yuki said, finally contributing without food going into her mouth.

***

Sora ran over to the other girls who were standing in front of the library talking, she was pulling Hikaru behind her.

“Kasiano-san, I told you I don’t wanna go to the library!”

“Too bad! You’re on the team so you have to hang out with us! Besides, Ma-”

“Hm? Sora-san, why did you bring Hikaru-san?”

“Because he’s part of the team, silly!”

“The more the merrier! Right Mari-chan?” Momoko looked at Mari expectantly.

“Er…uh…well…Wh-who said I was the leader anyhow?” She quickly turned and went into the library, blushing the entire time.

“Uh…Hoshi did…” Yuki said as she followed the brunette into the large building. The rest of the “Star Squad” followed behind them.

***

After dropping off her old book Momoko began browsing through the shelves for a new novel to read. Sora looked with her.

“Say, Momoko-chan, do you think that Hikaru-kun likes Mari-chan?”

“I don’t know. Why?”

“It would be so cute. Don’t you think?”

Momoko paused for a moment, a thoughtful look on her face. “It would.” She whispered excitedly before continuing on in her search.

As Momoko continued to look the rest of the group slowly made their ways to the shelf Momoko was intently staring at.

“So, you find anything to read Hoshino-san?” Hikaru asked, quickly glancing her way.

“Um…n-no. Not really…I’ll just stick with what I have. Y’know, at home… Uh, did you?”

“No, I-”

“Eureka!” Momoko struggled to keep her voice quiet as she reached for the book. Just before she could take it, another hand snatched it off the shelf.

“Here’s the book I was looking for.” A girl with long, black hair smiled as she looked at the book.

“I was gonna read that…um…you.” Momoko pouted.

“Yukari, and I’m sorry. Maybe they’ve got another copy that just came in or something.”

Before anyone could say anything else a voice from the front of the library yelled, “ATTACK MY PRETTY! ATTACK!”

“No yelling in the-AHHHH!”

“What the hell?!” Hikaru ran toward the front of the library.

“What’s going on?! Is the library seriously in trouble?!” The black haired girl looked around, a panicked look on her face.

“C’mon guys, let’s go!” Sora grabbed Mari and Yuki’s hands and ran off after Hikaru with Momoko trailing behind them.

“Wait, do you guys know what’s going on?” The other girl followed after them, dropping her book. “Seriously, do you have any idea-oh my gosh!” She stared as the group transformed into the magical girls from the news right in front of her and then continued to run to the front of the library.

A tall, white haired man stood by the front desk laughing manically. A large, pink cat sat next to him with an evil grin on its face and everyone that had been near the front of the library was passed out on the floor.

“What’s going on?!” Yukari squealed.

“What’s going on? Why, my master plan is going on dear!” The white haired man said as he stopped laughing, a charming smile plastered on his face.

“Master plan this!” Hikaru rushed at the new general with his sword, only to be easily knocked back.

“Nebula Prince!” Mari rushed over to him.

“You have a pretty decent amount of energy, more than these humans I must say. Not as much as the Sailor Soldiers though. Although I will give you points for being well dressed.” The new general gave his same charming smile.

“We don’t care about your psychobabble, just take your girly cat and leave! Ice Shield!”

He easily dodged Yuki’s attack and finally stopped grinning. “Girly? He is not girly, he’s vicious!”

“He?” Everyone stared at the fluffy, pink cat at the general’s side now.

“Yes, he. Now, attack them! Steal their energy!” And with that the cat pounced at the girls, narrowly missing Yuki’s face with his razor sharp claws.

“Wind Blast!” The pink monster jumped out of the way just before the attack hit it.

“It’s too cute to kill!” Sora cooed.

“Cute? Forget cute, it’s seeing our attacks to fast! I don’t think I could even trap it in an Ice Shield.”

“That’s where Sailor Dark comes in!” A small black cat jumped out of Yukari’s backpack and onto her head.

“Karas, you were in my backpack?! You can talk?!”

“Nebula Prince, try to distract the…monster?” Mari was still kneeling next to him.

“Sure thing.”

“Talking cat? It must be that other guy Hoshi told us about!” Yuki grabbed Yukari’s hand, “Do whatever the cat tells you…”

“What?” She blinked a couple times.

“Take the pen out of your pocket and say ‘Dark Power, Makeup.’”

“Okay?” Yukari took the black pen out of the pocket of her blazer and looked at it.

“Do it now!” Everyone, including Hikaru, yelled this at her.

“Geez! Dark Power, Makeup!” She transformed, now wearing a dark red sailor costume. “Eeep! I’m one of you?!”

“Now say ‘shade’ and we can get this show on the road. Okay?” Karas was still on her head.

She nodded. “Shade!” The entire room became engulfed in darkness.

“What do we do? What do we do? I can’t see!” Sora squealed.

“And neither can that girly monster,” Mari whispered, “Hyousetsuno-chan aim toward Hikaru’s voice and you should trap it.”

“NP, where are you?”

“Here!”

“Ice Shield!”

“AH!”

“What happened?” Yukari asked as she threw open the door, providing enough light to reveal that the cat monster had been trapped in the icy prison.

“If I didn’t hit you why did you yell?”

“I thought you were trying to give me frostbite or something!”

“Yeah, I was just gonna hope you got out of the way in time…”

“Will someone tell me what exactly is going on?”

“In a minute. Shooting Star Barrage!” Finally, the monster was killed.