Star Squad

Two days and no attack, this was the most days that the dark army had gone without one. Mari hoped that they were done, but she knew they weren’t. There was no way that they would stop just as quickly as they had started.

“Do you think they’re planning something…really bad?” Mari asked Hoshi as she sat on her bed and scratched his head.

“No worse than usual I’m sure. It probably just takes allot of work to get the monsters up and running, they’re getting stronger after all.”

“Yeah…”

Just then, her phone rang. She picked it up, only to be greeted by Sora’s cheery voice. She and Yuki had been hanging out with Sora since they discovered she was the third soldier.

“Hi Sora-chan. What is it?”

“I’m going to the beech today, wanna come?”

“I don’t know, I’m not really-”

“C’mon! It’ll be fun! We can get ice-cream, and build a sandcastle, and burry Yuki in the sand and turn her into a mermaid! Please!”

“Okay, okay! I’ll go to the beach.”

“Yay! I’ll see you there! Bye-bye Mari-chan!”

Mari put her phone up and sighed. She got off her bed and began rummaging through her droors.

Hoshi sat up. “Where are we going?”

“The beach.”

“I thought you hated the beach.”

“I do, but Sora-chan wouldn’t have shut up if I didn’t say yes.”

“Very true, she doesn’t seem to be like that.”

She pulled her bright yellow swimsuit out and held it up, holding it close and then farther out. “Besides, what’s the worst that could happen if I go to the beach just this once?”

***

“MARI-CHAN!” Sora grabbed onto Mari and spun her around as she hugged her.

“Sora-chan, don’t kill her! Geez.” Yuki put her hands on her hips and watched as Sora slowly stopped spinning Mari.

“So, what’re we doing here?” Mari scratched her head uncomfortably as she looked around.

“Ohmygosh! It’s gonna be so fun! We can get ice-cream, and build a sandcastle, and burry Yuki-chan in the sand to make her look like a mermaid, and-” She continued talking, but the other two girls stopped paying attention to her.

“I never agreed to that ‘buried in the sand’ thing. I think she just assumed I would.”

“She does that.”

“Yeah, cuz don’t you not like the water or something?”

“It’s not that I don’t like the water, I just can’t swim. And I don’t like the beach either,” she squinted against the bright sunlight, “Too bright and sandy.”

“Weird, I think that’s why most people do like it. Whatever though. C’mon, we can just sit on my towel and talk or whatever. Sora can turn herself into a mermaid, I bet she’d make a good one.”

“Hey guys, where’re you going?!” Sora ran after the girls after she noticed that they were going somewhere without her.

***

The girls sat on Yuki’s towel, chatting away and eating the ice-cream that Sora had kept bringing up. Hoshi was lying just behind them, his head resting on Mari’s bag.

“Hey Mari-chan, where’s your brooch?”

“Oh, I put it in my bag.” She patted the large plaid purse that Hoshi was using as a pillow. “Where are you guys’ pens?”

“Purse.” Yuki pointed to the panda purse she had set under Sora’s umbrella.

“In Yuki-chan’s bag.”

“Oh, ok. So what do you-” Just then a dark haired boy fell into her lap.

Mari’s whole face turned red and she squeaked a little.

“Sorry, sorry, my bad, sorry!” He clumsily got back up. “Did I hurt you?”

“N-no, I’m fine…” Mari giggled nervously and looked away.

“You did hurt her ice-cream though. You should go buy her another, or she’ll beat you up. Mari-chan, I think you should beat him up.” She used obvious sarcasm.

“No, no. I’ll go get her a new one.” He ran off in the direction of the ice-cream vendor.

“He does know I was kidding right?”

“I sure hope so, I don’t know how to beat people up.”

“Oh sure you do! You do it all the time when you’re Sailor-”

“I got your ice-cream!” The boy came running back carrying a new ice-cream cone. “I wasn’t sure what flavor you had before I knocked it off the cone…and got sand on it, so I just got you vanilla. Is that okay miss?”

“Uh, M-mari. My name is Mari. And y-yeah that’s okay…sir?”

“Oh, uh, Hikaru. Sorry, it was rude of me to not introduce myself wasn’t it?”

“Aw! He’s so nice!” Sora smiled big and put her hands on the side of her face.

“Y-yeah. Its kinda how my parents raised me.”

“You do know I was kidding earlier right? I didn’t really want her to beat you up. Hell, I doubt she could.” Yuki chuckled a bit at the last part.

“Then why’d you say it?” He blinked a couple of times as he stared at Yuki, confused.

After a brief pause, Yuki finally said something. “You’re not good with sarcasm, are you?”

“No, not really. Why can’t you just say what you mean?”

“So why’d you fall on me anyway?”

“Oh!” He turned a little red at this. “Clumsy I guess. Wasn’t looking where I was going. What’s with your dog?”

The whole time they had been talking Hoshi had been steadily staring at Hikaru.

“Oh, I, uh, I have absolutely no idea. Maybe he smelled a cat.” Mari laughed it off.

“At the beach?”

“Uh…yeah. Cats at the-”

Just then, the same maniacal laughter they heard at the school came from a little farther up the beach and a few of the people around them started dropping to the sandy ground.

“What the hell?!” Hikaru turned around and stared in the direction of the laughter. There was Mercutio and another of his Amazonian monsters, it was an exact copy of the one from earlier in the week.

“Hey, you, how good’re your reflexes?”

“Huh?” Hikaru turned around to see a dark haired man with furry ears sticking out of his head and the girls looking around panicked and frenziedly trying to talk over each other.

“I said, how good are your reflexes?”

“D-decent. Wh-where did you come from? Where’s that dog? What’s go-”

Before he could finish his sentence Hoshi had thrown him a small sword charm. As soon as he caught it he was wearing a prince’s outfit, minus the cape, and a small black mask.

“The hell?!”

“What he said…” Mari stared at him, deeply confused.

“It’s a long story that I’ll explain later, just protect them!” He pointed to the girls.

Hikaru blinked in confusion a few times, and then nodded.

“Hoshi, what just hap-” Sora began to ask him a question, but she got interrupted.

“I said I’ll explain later, just transform.”

The girls transformed and ran over to where Hikaru was fighting off the monster. He sliced off its arm just as they arrived.

“How dare you attack a bright, sunny location of fun! It unacceptable to ruin my day-I mean all these people’s days off! For spoiling their fun and stealing their energy I will punish you!” Sora made a very triumphant pose as she said this.

“Oh really now, that’s very exciting. I’ve never gotten such a sexy threat before.” Mercutio winked at her.

Sora squealed and hid behind Yuki. “Where did he get anything sexy out of what I said?!”

“Oh the glory of the double entendre. I’m not gonna like fighting this guy.”

“Aw, what’s the matter cutie?” He appeared behind Sora. “I don’t bite…much.”

She screamed again and hid behind Hikaru.

“Don’t you dare touch…”

“Sailor Blaze.” She whispered in his ear.

“Don’t you dare touch Sailor Blaze!”

Just as he spoke the monster tried to attack Yuki. “Star, a little help! I think this one’s gonna be strong against ice again!”

“Shooting star barrage!” Mari attacked the monster and killed it, turning it into a puddle like Sora had done with its predecessor.

“If you’re all just going to kill my fun I’m outta here. Till next time Sailor Blaze.” He disappeared without a trace once again.