"What you have to do," Venus explained. "Is to pick something. Something flashy, something amazing, something that will get everybody's attention."
A puzzled frown appeared on Saturn's face. "Like what?"
"Well, take me for instance." Venus gestured down at herself. "I'm the Senshi of Love and Beauty so when I make my appearance those are the things I want to emphasise." She pointed up at one of the buildings nearby. "It's probably better if I just show you. So just stay here, okay. I'm going to go up to one of those buildings and jump back down here and make my entrance."
"Okay." Saturn nodded. "Got it."
"Good."
Venus leapt onto one of the nearby buildings and took a few moments to prepare herself. Then, with a single graceful leap she launched herself off the building. The instant she landed there was a flash of bright golden light and when Saturn could see again, Venus was surrounded by a nimbus of light. Golden hearts shimmered in the air and ribbons of light swirled around her. A seemingly localised wind stirred the ribbons and bows on her uniform and she struck a pose that was at once stern and yet utterly feminine. In short, she looked magnificent.
As the light dimmed she gazed defiantly at Saturn. "I am the Senshi of Love and Beauty, the lovely Sailor Venus and in the name of Venus I will bring you to justice!"
Silence.
"That was so cool!" Saturn clapped her hands. "That was really, really good, Venus."
Venus blushed. "Yeah, it was pretty cool, but what about you, Saturn, have you come up with any ideas. My entrance screams: look it's not just another Sailor Senshi it's Sailor Venus. You need something that scream to the world: look upon me and behold my awesomeness."
"Well…" Saturn hesitated. "I am the Senshi of Death and Rebirth."
"Oh." Venus sighed. "That does complicate things doesn't it? You can't very well just jump out and kill everyone, now can you? I mean, that kind of works, but it is a little extreme. Kind of creep too, if you ask me."
"Yeah…"
Seeing Saturn's downcast expression, Venus put a broad smile on her face. "Well, not to worry. After all, you have the lovely Sailor Venus on your side. Give me two… no, make that one week and I promise you'll have something so cool that even Pluto will have no choice but to bow down to the coolness that is Sailor Saturn."
"Really?"
"You bet." Venus flashed Saturn the 'V for victory' sign. "I've already got some great ideas."
As Venus began to rant about all the cool stuff she had thought of, Saturn smiled. Maybe it hadn't been a mistake to go to Venus about this. Setsuna and Michiru had both thought she was crazy and Haruka thought it was the funniest thing ever. But all of them had great entrances. Setsuna had her flashy red lights, Haruka had her wind and Michiru, Michiru had all that water. But what did she, Hotaru, Sailor Saturn have? Nothing. A flash of purple light and that was it. But maybe, just maybe, after all of this she'd have something to call her own. Something cool.
Yeah.
X X X X
"Mars, watch out!"
A spike of rock ripped upward from the ground as Mars hurled herself clear. She was a fraction too slow however, and the jagged rock scored a long, ugly gash along the side of her leg.
"Damn." Mars staggered to her feet. "How many shots does that thing take to die?"
The thing in question was a thirty-foot tall youma made out of solid rock. It's first approach had been to try and crush them with its massive fists and when that hadn't worked it had alternated between throwing cars and others handy projectiles, like mail boxes and street lights, at them and trying to step on them. Oh, and it could shoot spikes out of the ground as well.
"Well, gee, Mars," Venus shouted as she dodged yet another car. "It's made of rock…"
"I know that."
"So why do you keep trying to burn it?" Venus scrambled out of the path of a mailbox. Said mailbox exploded in a shower of twisted metal and crumpled paper when it hit the pavement. "I mean trying to burn the big rock thing, that's brilliant, just brilliant."
"And you did better?" Mars launched another attack. Needless to say it achieved as much as the four other attacks she'd already thrown. That is to say, it accomplished nothing.
"Would you two stop arguing!" That was Uranus. Her wind based attacks hadn't been doing very well either and the constant bickering of the two Inners was starting to get on her nerves. "And where are Pluto and Saturn, they should be here by now."
"Funny you should mention that," Venus pointed out. "Here comes Pluto now."
And sure enough, Pluto was making her entrance. She materialised on top of one of the fallen street lights. As always, streamers of crimson light swirled around her and opaque mists billowed outwards as she strode confidently forward to confront the enemy. She took three steps before she realised that everyone, giant stone youma included, was not looking at her, but rather behind her.
On top of one of the few remaining upright street lights there was a flash of violet light. It was followed by ribbons of purple energy that fluttered like so many flags in the sudden, completely localised wind. A hush fell over the area and it seemed as though everything, even the youma had gone silent. And then the ribbons exploded outward, dissolving into violet flower petals as a single voice called out, strong and confident.
"I am the Senshi of Death and Rebirth, the Soldier of Silence…" Saturn appeared in the midst of all the flower petals, twirling her glaive around. "Armed with the Silence Glaive no evil can escape me…" She pointed the glaive at the stunned youma in a single powerful gesture. "I am Sailor Saturn and I will punish you!"
"No freaking way…" Uranus murmured, stumbling over a mangled mailbox.
"What in the world…" Pluto looked stunned.
"Saturn…?" Neptune's voice was barely more than a whisper.
"You go girl!" And that of course was Venus.
And as for the youma? Why, it never knew what hit it.
X X X X
Well, sorry about the little break between updates. This is obviously a much more light-hearted piece than the previous one.
This piece is my latest attempt at humour. Don't get me wrong, I love the Inner Senshi, and I think they're fantastic, but sometimes I wonder about the practicality of their entrances. They spend a couple of minutes an episode spinning around and looking cool. In this time the enemy usually stands there looking mildly horrified. And the Outers are only a little better. What I wanted to do with this piece was to explore that particular side of the Senshi, which I find to be humorous, with something a bit more serious. I think Hotaru has always felt a little out of place when compared to the other Senshi. She has less experience than them, she's a lot younger than them and she also happens to be the most powerful (combat-wise). I think, having a cool entrance is something that she would want so that she can really feel like she's part of the group and Minako, being the kind and outgoing person she is, is the best choice to teach her. It helps that the idea of Sailor Saturn wanting a cool entrance is just plain funny. On that note, I do hope that this particular piece was entertaining.
As always, please leave some feedback. You know, did you think it was good, bad, or in between? Let me know.