Star Squad

“Mari-chan, are you okay?” Yukari asked, a touch of concern on her face.

“I-I’m fine Kurono-chan.”

“Are you sure? You don’t look like you’re having fun.”

“It’s just that, well, I think I might have seen-” However, before she could finish her sentence a very large, bright blue squirrel burst through the wall. A very familiar laugh could be heard not too far off. Sora squealed before ducking farther into the water, almost up to her chin now.

“Snap out of it,” Yuki started as she scrambled out of the water with the others following her, dragging Sora, and hastily put on their robes, “We’ve gotta-” But before she could finish talking, Rafiel stood in the wreckage of the wall.

“I know they’re here, my new detector senses their energy.” He said as he peered down at the small, circular device in his hand as it gave off a faint beeping noise.

The girls stared at him, completely frozen. They were the only ones in the hot spring. It was only a matter of time before he figured out who they were. Not knowing what else to do, Mari grabbed Sora’s hand and ran out of the hot spring before he looked up, hoping that the others would follow. They did.

“Hoshino-chan, what are we doing?” Yukari asked, panic stricken, as she followed Mari back to the room they had rented.

“I don’t know! It was all I could come up with!”

“He had a tracker though!” Momoko said, throwing open the door to the room.

“He’s gonna find us!” Sora squealed.

“I know he’s gonna find us, but we have to transform before he does!” Mari said, grabbing her brooch from her bag.

“Mari-san is right!” Yuki grabbed her pen, and the other girls did the same.

They all transformed just as the blue squirrel came into the room, followed by Rafiel, all but Momoko.

“Oh no, I forgot it!” Panic washed over Momoko’s face as she dumped the contents of her bag on the floor. Her orange and yellow transformation pen was nowhere to be found.

“I knew you were all here! My detector wouldn’t lie to me like that, but finding one of you to be totally useless is just a bonus.”

“Sh-she’s not a Sailor Soldier! She’s just some random girl we found and wanted to protect.” Sora said, attempting to wave off Momoko’s presence.

“My detector shows all five energy signatures are in this room you twit,” He held up the small device, “And seeing as how she’s the only other person in this room she’s obviously a Sailor Soldier.”

“Well that plan failed. Nice try though Blaze.”

“Enough of this chatter, attack my pretty! Attack!”

The blue squirrel lunged toward Momoko, only to be stopped by Yuki’s ice shield.

“We gotta get rid of this thing!” Yuki exclaimed, standing next to Momoko to protect her.

“It won’t be so easy this time Star Squad; your little tricks won’t work this time.”

“Shooting Star Barrage!” Mari aimed her attack at Rafiel, who got out of the way just in time.

“You should know that won’t work Sailor Star.” He said, laughing again.

Mari attacked him again, and just after he moved out of the way Yukari and Yuki ran out of the room with Momoko.

“Shade!” The hallway filled with darkness as Yukari, Yuki, and Momoko ran down it.

“My monster can see in the dark, I told you your little tricks wouldn’t work!”

“Ice Shield!” Yuki covered the doorway in a wall of ice, sealing Rafiel and the monster in the room with the two remaining members of the Star Squad.

“Oh dear, I didn’t plan for that. Ta-ta!” And with that he disappeared.

“We got this! Fire Missal!”

“Shooting Star Barrage!” Both of the girls attacked the monster, killing it. They turned to the wall of ice holding them in the room and Sora melted it.

***

Later, after the girls were back in their normal clothes and the darkness in the hallway had faded they all sat in the room, piled on one of the beds.

“This is bad guys, this is really bad! He knows who I am.” Momoko whined.

“It’ll be okay, you have us.” Yukari put her arm around the other girl reassuringly.

“One of us will be with you whenever we can.” Sora said, smiling.

“Thanks guys.”