Chapter 20: Spring

A wide field of beautiful pink and yellow flowers spread out before Sailor Taurus's eyes. She noticed that Sailor Aries and Sailor Gemini were with her, but she didn't see any of the other Zodiac Senshi. The field they were in seemed to be pretty open, so there weren't any places the others could be hiding.

"Is it just us here? Where's everyone else? I thought there were 12 of us," Sailor Gemini worried.

"I thought we were going to the Moon Kingdom ruins," Sailor Aries added, "Did Bertha terraform it without anyone knowing?"

"That would be funny if the big bad villain ended up doing something nice and helpful!" laughed Sailor Taurus.

"I don't think this is the Moon Kingdom. I read books about it in the palace library and it had more buildings than this. Even the ruins would be more than just an empty field," Sailor Gemini pointed out, "I'm afraid we might have gotten lost somewhere else."

"Then let's just start looking around for the others! We won't find them by standing here and worrying!" Sailor Taurus exclaimed.

"I like that attitude. You know how to have fun, like me. Too bad I have to kill you, though," said a voice that was familiar to Sailor Taurus. There were flashes of blue and purple light as Yumemi Hino and Honoka Kaiou appeared. The sky became suddenly filled with clouds and a rumble of thunder was heard.

"This is a great setting for your destruction. Maybe the lightning will do it for me, although that might not be as fun as doing it myself," Honoka said with a smirk.

"Why do you have to kill me, Yumemi? Do you really have to follow Bertha's orders? Or are you doing it because you truly want us to be dead?" Sailor Taurus asked, "You called Bertha 'bossy' when we fought before. Is she really someone you want to take orders from?"

"Well, she told me that it would be more fun if Chibi was the Queen instead of Neo-Queen Serenity, because she said that if Chibi was the Queen, she would make it so that I wouldn't have to ever go to school or do any chores or jobs that I don't want to do," Yumemi explained.

"THAT'S why you want to kill us?! I mean, I like to play and have fun too, but I wouldn't KILL people for telling me to go to school and do chores!" Sailor Taurus argued.

"And I don't need anyone to tell me that killing you would be fun. Or at least torturing you with my tornado of doom! This world of wild spring weather is perfect for my wind powers!" Honoka bragged. As she spoke, wind swirled around her feet and lifted her body into the air so that she could rise up towards the clouds.

"I'll stop her! I'll match her wind with wings! Taurus Animal Transformation!" Sailor Taurus called. Turquoise lights swirled around her body, and she became an eagle with turquoise and black feathers. As she flew into the sky, charging at Honoka, Yumemi conjured a sword of ice and pointed at the two Senshi who were still on the ground.

"I won't let you ruin my fun!" she declared, charging at Sailor Aries and Sailor Gemini, who both dodged out of the way.

"I'm sorry, Rei, but I have to stop her. Gemini Muffin Exaltation!" Sailor Gemini countered. At the same time, Sailor Aries used her "Aries Numerical Escalation" power to throw a giant number 2 at Yumemi. Yumemi managed to cut the giant chocolate muffin in half with her sword, but could not stop the number 2 from hitting her in the arm, which made her drop the sword. Glaring at the two Senshi, her hand glowed blue and she shot a beam of ice at Sailor Aries, freezing her boots to the wet grass.

Meanwhile, Honoka had begun to create a small tornado above her head, making it very difficult for Taurus-eagle to fly anywhere near her. Sailor Aries looked up and saw what was going on. While Yumemi was busy chasing Sailor Gemini, trying and failing to hit the blue-haired Senshi with her ice beams, Sailor Aries decided to try to help stop the formation of the tornado. Even though her feet were frozen in place, she still could use her hands to create her magic numbers.

"Aries Numerical Escalation!" she yelled, taking aim as she created a number 9 of glowing pink energy and flung it at Honoka. She managed to strike Honoka's right leg, and Honoka lost control of the whirlwind as well as her ability to float on the wind, and she fell to the ground. Unfortunately, the tornado's creation had been set in motion, and it kept growing, flinging Taurus-eagle out of the sky and sending her crashing to the ground, unconscious, and she lost her transformation, reverting back to the human Sailor Taurus. Sailor Gemini, who was quickly getting tired from trying to escape Yumemi's ice beams, slipped on the wet ground and fell, panting. She heard Yumemi scream in fear and looked up, seeing the tornado was coming towards them. Honoka had been swept into it and she was squealing with crazed excitement as she was spun around, acting as if it was an amusement park ride.

"Aries Numerical Escalation!" Sailor Aries called again, this time aiming at her own frozen boots. She slammed a sharp-edged number 7 into them, shattering the ice but also hurting her own feet in the process. She then felt a giant block of ice strike her in the back, and it knocked her down as well.

"It's your fault! I knew you Zodiac Senshi were trouble! You made Honoka lose control of the tornado and now it's going to eat me too and I won't get to have any more fun because it's gonna kill me!" Yumemi ranted, having thrown the block of ice.

"But Honoka was the one who caused the tornado in the first place," Sailor Gemini pleaded, although she wasn't sure if Yumemi had heard her over the howl of the winds. The three Sailor Senshi and Yumemi were then sucked into the tornado. They spun higher and higher until they reached the point where the tornado was attached to the clouds. They were tossed through the top of the funnel, flying above the clouds, and they landed on top of the gray clouds, which were surprisingly soft and bouncy like pillows. Not far above their heads was an odd, glowing pink flower that was hovering in the air.

"How…how is this possible? Clouds aren't solid objects, so how can we be up here without falling through?" Sailor Aries asked, amazed.

"I don't know. Maybe it's part of Honoka's magic wind powers?" Yumemi guessed.

"I don't care where we battle! I still want to kill you annoying Zodiac Senshi, so I'll just drop you off of these clouds!" Honoka roared. Instead of using her magic, she ran over to Sailor Taurus, who was starting to wake up, and began to drag her across the clouds, intending to shove her off the edge. Yumemi noticed what she was doing and went over to help. Sailor Aries saw this too, but instead of jumping to Sailor Taurus's defense, she turned to Sailor Gemini.

"I have an idea that might defeat them. I will try to distract them with my number attack, and while I'm doing that, do you think you could create an extra big muffin to knock them both out?" she said quietly.

"That might work," Sailor Gemini agreed, and she began to concentrate, calling out "Gemini Muffin Exaltation!" Sailor Aries ran over to where Taurus was struggling against the two girls who were trying to drag her off the cloud.

"Aries Numerical Escalation!" she yelled, throwing a glowing number 5 at Honoka, who stumbled forward, dropping her hold on Sailor Taurus, who used her now freed arm to grab Yumemi by the ankle. Yumemi stopped and tried to shake her off, but then she, too, was hit by another of Sailor Aries's magic numbers.

"If I can't throw you off, I'll BLOW you off!" Honoka decided, and she began to create a whirlwind around herself. It slowly started expanding outward, ironically sending Sailor Taurus rolling closer to the middle of the cloud rather than the edge. Yumemi ran away from Honoka, realizing that she could get caught up in it again.

"Stop it, Honoka! Can't you do something that won't hurt ME too?!" she pleaded.

"No! I don't care who I hurt! I can do whatever I want!" Honoka declared.

"Aries Numerical Escalation!" Sailor Aries tried again. She threw a pink number 8 at Yumemi, who dodged. The 8 hit the edge of Honoka's expanding wall of wind, and it bounced off, flying upwards. It smashed into the weird hovering flower, causing both the 8 and the flower to disappear in a puff of pink smoke. Suddenly, everything changed. Instead of in an open field, they were up near the ceiling of a large room that was filled with many potted plants, and the cloud they had been standing on rapidly disappeared. In her surprise, Sailor Gemini dropped the giant muffin she had been creating, and it landed on the floor beneath her as everyone fell down from the ceiling, no longer supported by the cloud. The three Sailor Senshi all landed on the giant muffin, which cushioned their fall, but Yumemi and Honoka weren't as lucky. They both crashed into a shelf that had smaller plants, and the shelf fell over, landing on top of them and knocking them out.

"What just happened? Where did that cloud and field go?" Sailor Taurus said weakly, as she and the other two Senshi climbed down off of the giant muffin.

"I don't know. It looks like we're in a greenhouse now," said Sailor Aries, and then she realized something. "Everything changed when…when I accidentally hit that weird floating flower!"

"Since we were trying to go to the Moon Castle, maybe that's where we really are, and the stormy field was just a very realistic illusion," Sailor Gemini suggested.

"I see a door near that rosebush over there. Let's get out of here and find the other Senshi," Sailor Taurus said. Aries and Gemini nodded, and the three Senshi went over to the door. They found it was surprisingly unlocked, and they opened it. It led into a hallways that was decorated with pink, flowery wallpaper, and the three Senshi headed down it, off in search of both their allies and their remaining enemies.