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Dressed to Kill (For Truth, Love and Justice, of course)
By Sherlyn Lim <sherlyn.lim@student.canberra.edu.au>
The door slid open with a barely perceptable hiss. The young child
who ran in irrationally wished for a simple, wooden, _loud_ door that she
could slam. She wasn't quite old enough to understand why, but the
physical act of taking hold of a door and slaming it closed loudly seemed
to be very much in keeping with her current mood. She wished very much
for that thump that signalled to the world that _she_ was angry and that
a door was closed between her and what made her angry.
This new paradise wasn't turning out to be all that great after all.
In the first few days, after being brought here by the two grown-ups,
{Senshi}, she mentally corrected herself, {They are called senshi}. It
had seemed like heaven to the young urchin. As much food as she could
eat, a soft bed, {Soft, like clouds} the child smiled in spite of
herself, hand creeping out to touch the bed, with it's pillows and warm
comforter. Clean clothes and toys and no *others* to snatch her food and
things away.
She could not help marvelling, as she looked around the room.
"Mine." she tried the word out. It felt good on her lips. Then her gaze
fell upon the pile of books stacked haphazardly on her small desk, and
her feelings of happiness fled.
She didn't mind looking at the pictures, but come lesson time, a new
experience for her, the sqiggley things that made no sense would come to
plague her. Worst, it _would_ be that which her teachers concentrate on.
As she thought about it, her face grew darker and her mouth set in a
stubborn line that would amaze one of her senshi saviours in it's
similarity to her partner's.
Just then, her door chimed and slid open. {Another good thing about
normal doors, you can _lock_ them} the child thought sulkily. Her visitor
was a sleek orange tabby cat. "May I come in?" asked the cat politely.
Talking cats was just another oddity in a place filled with strange things
and people and the child had quickly adapted to it all. At her nod, the
cat padded softly into her room. With a graceful leap, he reached her bed
and made himself comfortable without further ado.
"Troubles with your lessons?" the cat enquired, lifting his paw and
licking it for a moment. He put his paw down and looked at the child
directly.
"Oh Apollo! Why do _I_ have to learn all those sqiggley things.
They, they're just sqiggles!" the child burst out, frustrated. " They
don't mean anything!"
"The sqiggley things, as you call them are letters and my dear
child, they mean a lot of things if you know how to look," Apollo
replied. "It's a key to knowing lots of stuff and _you_ _have_ _to_ know
a lot to become a senshi, you know."
The words {I don't want to be a senshi} hovered at the child's
mouth, but she bit them back. Instead, she muttered,"Well, I don't know
how to look."
The cat sighed and moved closer to the child. He knew better that to
tell her that that's what her teachers have been trying to teach her for
the past week. "Being a senshi isn't just about fighting evil and
defending Truth and Justice, y'know. Fighting evil, why, any one with
sufficient muscles" {And luck} the cat privately added, {And brains too if
he or she wants to survive} "could do it." he continued aloud."But being a
senshi means more than that. A senshi has to know things, important
things and---"
"How could they fight evil dressed like that?"
"What?"
"The senshi. How could they fight dressed so silly?" the child
obliging repeated.
"Um..." {How the hell did we get to _this_ subject?} Apollo's mind
raced frantically for an answer. {Maybe if she knows more, she wouldn't
fight the idea of being a senshi so much...} "Well, you have to know the
circimstances back then..."
"What circumstances?" the child, with an unerring instinct for
incoming stories, settles down expectantly to listen.
"Well, you'd have to know the history of the senshi first. How the
First Serenity used the former God Chamber, reforged in the Eternal Fire
to become the Ginzoushou and affected reality by binding each ancient
wonder to the royal houses of the planets. Then they fought off the
Slavers but was in turn, killed by them. How an entire city was destroyed
by the force and how the surviving princes from the house of Mu returned
the senshi transformation wands and artifact to the rightful heirs..."
Apollo sneaked a peek at the child's face, her eyes were wide opened as
she lisened to the story. {Good, she's hooked} Apollo smiled and
continued.
"But the rest of the earth's royal houses weren't happy with that.
They figured that since it was _their_ troops who liberated the
system,(not really, they helped but they didn't do it by themselves)
they should have the powers for themselves. So, you've got greedy little
earth princlings, a system torn by the ravages of the Slavers and young
Guardians/ senshi who just inheirited the most powerful artifacts in the
system. The whole situation must have seemed perfect and our system, ripe
for the picking to the outsiders."
Apollo's eyes went distant as he remembered his first mind meld
with the Uranus then. _That_ Uranus had vivid memories, almost too
vivid. He had been drawn to her memories of the chaos then, even though it
was several decades past.
His voice trailed of as he sat in the warm bright room, opposite a young
child with short silvery blonde hair.
The child sighed at the interruption and tugged lightly at Apollo's
tail to bring him back to the present. Apollo, startled from his
thoughts, stared at the child and the child stared back with her clear
blue eyes, waiting paitiently for Apollo to continue.
"Oh. Short skirts, yes. Well. These new senshi weren't the spoilt
bratlings that you'd expected them to be. No, the Slavers cured them of
that. Most of them had been involved in the Uprising that overthrew the
Slavers. And some of them, your ancestress being a fine example, turned
out to be positively gifted in fighting wars.
"So, when the new threat of invasion came, the senshi rallied and
prepared their planets to defend themselves. Unfortunately, while their
planets were prepared to fight for their freedom, they were not prepared
to fight _with_ the other planets for their freedom. Except maybe with
earth, cos the earth troops had helped with the uprising on every
planet. But the senshi and young Serenity (who is the first Serenity's
daughter) were insistent on the planets fighting together and as one.
"Now, I don't know if you've noticed," said Apollo with a sly glint
in his eyes," but it's never a good idea to force people to do what they
don't want to do. They'll drag their feet and be quite unpleasant over
the whole affair. and _that_, is exactly what happened.
"The Martian commanders sniped at the Venusian generals, The
Uranians insisted on going their own way with the Neptunites
solidly behind them. Earth's generals tried to take over the command
and on it went.
"While all this is going on, our senshi had been busy. They knew
that the enemy was stronger, had more firepower, outnumbered the system's
defenders 2 to 1. Predominantly male (all those sexist, feminist nonsense
in the system went out the window at the time of the Slavers. If you
could fight, you're in) The senshi also knew that unlike their own command,
the invaders had a solid unified command. All in all, things wasn't going
very well.
"They _will_ fight together." stated the slender black haired senshi from
Mars, she unconciously straightened the robes of the Heirophant of the
Church of Fire, her face a mask of determination."Even if I have to light
their asses on fire, I _will_ have them working together."
Senshi Venus sighed. "It isn't enough to force them to fight together,
Mars. This just pushes the problem away and it'll still be there,
smouldering. I do not want to be involved in a cross planetary cultural
fight while an invasion is staring down in our faces." Glancing at the
priestess's grim face, she hastily adds,"Not that they would dare to,
after you've told them."
"Venus is right. Forcing them to work together won't work. While the
ground troops respect us and would follow our orders unquestioningly, how
would they react when the orders come from a commander from another
planet? At the very least, there would be some resistance and that could
be fatal in this kind of war." Mercury's soft spoken senshi asked.
Frustrated, Senshi Jupiter broke in,"Uranus, do they _have_ to work
together? Can't we just do what we did last time and use the earth's
ships as a link?"
"Yes, they have to."
"I was afraid you'd say that." muttered Jupiter, burying her fce in her
hands as she sat back.
"At least you aren't working with the delegation from earth. I swear, they
spend as much time bickering among themselves as with the other planets'
commanders." said Senshi Neptune wearily, "Generals! I'd take the whole
lot out and drown them but we need every body we can get." She turned to
face the only two senshi standing. "Pluto, Uranus, what are we going to
do?" her eyes betrayed the helplessness she felt.
{We've all gone through so much to get rid of the Slavers and now
this...} the unspoken thought hung in the air. There was a long silence
in the darkened room as the senshi thought of the pending battle. The
image fo all the planets, spinning on their axis with the dots of lights
denoting enemy presence sparkled, suspended in the air. It was Saturn's
work. {So many dots of light} She and a few others stared at their
planets, gleaming like jewels. So small from this perspective, and yet,
there was something incalculably precious on every planet.
Preliminary skirmishes has established that the invaders were
technologically more advanced than the system. Probably because the
Slaver's presence had slowed down the normal progress. Movements in enemy
camps have suggested a tightly knitted, well organized command.
Senshi Uranus was the first to break the silence."How could they _not_ see
the danger?!!" she burst out, raking her fingers through her shoulder
length hair."The enemy is almost upon us and still they fight and argue
like little children. Will it kill them to work together?! I can plot
strategies, I can command armies. Hell, I can bloody well take out the
whole ship if I have to. But to win, I need an unified army that won't
fall apart at the first cultural-socio mistake their allies make!" She
took a deep breath and released it slowly, controlling her anger with a
visible effort."With a unified army, it is possible that we can fight off
the bastards. We have several advantages that could sway victory to our
side. But with the current situation, we might as well put our system
on a silver platter and serve it to the invaders!"
Mercury took up the thread when it seemed that Uranus would say no more.
"Right now, our most pressing problem is that of morale. The commanding
officers do not trust one another and the army is fracturing under the
stress and distrust between their leaders. As Uranus stated, we can't go
on without sustaining heavy damages. I think that _we_ are the problem,
and the solution."
There was a shocked silence and then the room exploded with a tumultaneous
uproar.
"What do you mean, we're the problem--"
"--how to solve--"
"_We_ are holding the armies toget__"
"--don't think the armies--"
Mercury held up a hand for silence. "Please, just hear me out." When the
senshi subsided into quiet, she continued "Everyone is aware that the
basic root of our troubles is the fact that they haven't truly worked
togther before. The Slaver's regime had fostered an environment of
distrust and secrecy. The uprising was organized as a secret chain.
Events happened with the planets rising up without much help from the
other planets except for earth and the individual senshi. Our
predecessors.
"The lack of help from the other planets was logical, after all they had
problems of their own. But the fact remains that the planets are
strangers to each other. Our own communications in the uprising had to be
kept secret. They find it hard to trust anyone different from themselves
after the Slavers.
"We are different," her eyes held the other senshis' in turn. Satisfied
that she had their unequivocal attention, she continued calmly," but the
reason why _we_ could work together is that we are bound. Bound by
power and purpose and we know it. Our mistake was not telling the troops.
Like it or not, we are our planet's representatives in more ways than
one. If we could show the troops _our_ unity, the troops will follow.
Details would have to be worked out and cross troops trainning would have
to be organized, but I think the mere act of seeing us together as one
would sway the majority of the armies."
The senshi pondered over the blue haired senshi's words. Saturn was the
first to speak.
"Certainly, the ground and lower level troops would be easy to ...
persuade. But I think the commanders would require more than a united
show of strength."
"The problem is that the generals are used to command and used to us. A
man faced with an errupting volcano could get used to it if he sees it
every day. No, I agree with Saturn, the generals would not fall down and
roll over on our say so."said Neptune thoughtfully."We'd have to shock
them out of complacency and start them seeing us not as individual senshi
but as a group."
Jupiter ventured, "You mean, establish the senshi as a collective group
to take over command?"
Venus's eyes lit up and she enthused,"Of course, set the senshi up as the
protectors of the system and make us _the_ group. What better show of
unity than a uniformed group with such lofty aims. After all, we're
already doing it. This just makes it formal. We could have uniforms too!
Has to stand out, maybe pink..." her voice trailed off as she envisioned
various military uniforms and discarding them.
"Um... Venus. Not pink, please." grinned Jupiter, as she smiled at
Venus's new found enthusiasm. Then sobering, "It'll mean changes in the
army and to our vows though. We'd have to put the system before anything
else, even our own planets and family." She turned to Mercury," Mercury,
are you sure this would work?"
Mercury shrugged,"90%, give or take a few percentage points."
Mars tapped the edge of the table for a minute, thinking. Then she spoke
out."Somehow, this seems too easy. We put on a uniform and bang, all out
problems go away?" Mars raised an eyebrow quizzically.
Pluto spoke up for the first time in the meeting. "It's not quite that
simple, Mars. Look at us, as Mercury said, we are representatives of
our planets and that is a diverse group. WE've worked together so long,
it's no longer obvious but we are as different a goup as you can get
without taking into account other species. If we are seen working
together and working well. Then it signals the armies that they can do it
too. Never underestimate the power of leadership by example."
Mars looked thoughtful. Working together had made them ignore the
fundamental differences in everyone's character. Venus's cheerfulness.
Saturn's quiet nature. Her own intensity. All traits that have been
overridden by the same identity that came over them when they picked up
their transformation wands.
"Serenity would be part of the group." It was neither a statment or a
question. Instead, it hovered between the two. It was uncharacteristic of
Mars, but in this case, she really wasn't sure.
The senshi exchanged glances. Serenity's mother, THE Serenity, had been
the master mind of the uprising against the slavers. Wielding the
Ginzoushou, she was probably the most powerful person in the system,
excepting themselves. Her daughter, the 14 year old Serenity, seemed ready
to follow in her illustrous mother's footsteps although she had not been
confirmed as a senshi as the others were. The problem was, at 14,
Serenity was a lot more insulated from the ravages of the Slavers and the
following chaos. Senshi Saturn, the second youngest in the group at 17,
had seen more fighting in a month than what the younger Serenity has ever
seen in her young life.
All the senshi present had been blooded in the uprising. They had fought,
schemed, commanded. All felt a reluctance to bring Young Serenity into
the mess called War.
"No..., keep her out of this." said Uranus softly,"Let her keep her
innocence for that much longer..." Her eyes darkened as she thought of
all the dangers, the oppression that they had to endure under the Slavers
and privately, Senshi Uranus vowed then and there, never to let another
child's childhood be cut short. She would defend her system unto
death."Besides," she said briskly, as if to brush over her first
statment,"She hasn't had the chance to learn what she could do with the
Ginzoushou.I'd rather have her learn the full extent of her powers and be
our backup then have her on the frontline, untrained. We'll talk about
having her in the group or not when we get out of this."
Left unspoken was the words {She'd be safer there, _if_ we get out alive}
"Alright" "Agreed" the senshi murmured their assent. They had heard what
was left unspoken.
"Then it's settled," Mars looked aroung the room with some relief,"Venus,
why don't you design the uniform and Jupiter, help her." {and control her
for goodness's sakes. Pink uniforms.} "I'll talk to Serenity and see if
she could incorporate the uniform to our normal transformations."
Venus and Jupiter nodded and smiled at each other.
"Neptune and Mercury, you two get together and see what needs to be done
to unify our armies."
"If this means I get to make Earth's generals crawl, I could get to like
this." commented Neptune with a grim smile as she walked out of the room
with Mercury.
"Pluto and I would start planning, then." said Uranus, already pouring
over the maps and papers. "Saturn, if you'd come here for a minute..."
Mars looked around the room again. She was the oldest senshi there.
Everyone was already bent over their tasks. {I guess I'd better go check
on Serenity and see how she's doing.}
Later that day
Venus sighed with barely controlled frustration again for what seemed to
be the hundredth time. Jupiter had just shot down her fifty-something
design for the uniform. And it seemed like every senshi in the
neighbourhood had their own ideas on what the uniform should look like.
Uranus, on one of her rare breaks from the planning sessions, had
dropped in to strongly "suggest" a magically reinforced armour. With
pants, naturally. Neptune managed to find a lot of time to sit in and
offer comments on the uniform which strangely enough, seem to bear a
striking resemblance to the Neptunite's normal clothing. And Mars...
The senshi of love shuddered. Her idea of a uniform was a cross between
the robes of the Church of Fire and a neurotic knight dressed by a iron
happy blacksmith.
"This is not working very well, is it?" Jupiter asked sympathetically.
The duo had started with jokes and laughter but the design for the
uniform went steadily downhill. Particularly when the other senshi
started coming forward with suggestions.
Venus fixed the green eyed senshi with a grim look. "Armour?! PANTS?!
Hell yes, I'd say things are not going well. I will not wear trousers
and war or no war, I refuse to go around in public smelling like a rusty
tinpot."
"Calm down, Venus. Look,"
"Let's get out of here. I can't, I really can't come up with anything
with everyone thrusting their designs in my face." Venus interrupted.
"All right. I think Serenity might let us hide out in her room, Mars has
already checked on her and it'll be the last place anyone will look."
The two senshi grabbed their papers and pens and headed out to Serenity's
room with extreme caution for fear of being spotted.
After making several turns and doubling back, the two finally made it to
Serenity's room. They looked around to ensure that they were not being
noticed and then rapped softly on the door.
"Hurry up and open the door, Serenity" Venus murmured under her breathe,
eyes darting about for signs of Mars.
The door opened and part of a head, a odango and a long blonde ponytail
poked out of the small opening.
"Jupiter. Venus. Hi! Have you come to visit me?" the girl said happily.
"No time to chat. Hurry up and let us in before anyone sees us!" Venus
hissed, pushing her way into the room. "We've got a uniform to design!"
"A uniform? Really? Can I help? Can it be pink? It's my favourite colour..."
Fastforward to two days later
"There is _no_ way in hell that _I'm_ going to wear that!!" hissed Mars,
her eyes glowing like embers as she held up the offending article between
her thumb and finger. "I am the Heirophant of the Church of Fire and I
refuse to wear that, that, demeaning... thing!"
"Aw, come on Mars," chortled Serenity, seated cross legged on the table.
"I think it's cute."
"Thank you, Serenity" murmured Venus, trying to keep a straight face.
"We are supposed to fight a war, _NOT_ parade around in costumes! How are
we supposed to command troops when they'd be to busy gawking at our
legs!" snapped Mars angrily at Serenity, she was actually trembling with
anger over the uniform or rather lack of.
"But Mars, you really don't like it? I helped designed it too, you know."
said Serenity woefully. Her big blue eyes seemed to suggest imminent tears
if Mars didn't like it.
Mars stammered for a moment. She was fond of the girl and did not wish to
hurt her feelings. "It's not that... It's just..." At a loss for words,
she just gestured at the offending item.
The unfortunate uniform was similar to a sailor's, except it was
sleevless, had a bright bow in the front at the neckline and another bow
at the back of the waist. It's offensiveness, to Mars at least, was the
length of the skirt. or lack of. Either the seamstress had ran out of
material or it was designed by someone with a _very_ fine appreciation
for the female anatomy.
"Uranus!" Mars grabbed the person she deemed most likely to agree with
her, "Tell them! This is not seemly attire for the defenders of the solar
system!"
"Mars, at this stage,I would go around like a Venusian if I thought it
would unify the troops." came the flat, uncompromising answer.
Since Venusians more often than not went around nude, this reply brought
many stares. Uranus calmly stared back. {I think she could do it too,}
thought Venus critically, assessing the tall slender senshi's figure.
{Now why didn't we think of that in the first place? We could have saved
ourselves so much trouble_} "OW!" she yelped. Jupiter had just pinched
her, hard.
"Stop thinking so loudly!" Jupiter hissed, "I could hear you from here!"
"Sorry."
At this point, Neptune decided to intervene. "Mars, it really does make
sense to wear this, for now. It works on several levels. One, it'll shock
the commanders so much, we'd be able to push the senshi through as the
defenders of the systems before any of them closes their mouths."{and
stop drooling} "Mercury and I have discussed this. We figured that
we can not afford to have a overly militant look. At least, not if
we want the commanders to fall in behind us. If we demand control of the
system dressed like warrior queens, they will dig their heels in and not
budge for the next century. They're feeling vulnerable right now, they
just regained control of their own planets. We can't intimidate them into
giving us control. That will never work on them, so soon after the Uprising.
We'll have to persuade them and Venus's uniform will signal that we have
no intention of wresting away their rulership.
"Two, the troops _need_ this. They have to have someone to
cheer for, a spark of magic to get them through this. They've been
fighting the Slavers, and now they have to fight the invaders with hardly
any rest at all. THey need flashy, invincible heros to lead them to
victory and if wearing these uniforms would do it for them," {So to speak}
"Then wear it! God knows, they need it" she said the last in a grim note
almost under her breath.
She continued,"It even helps in the actual fighting.We've talked to
Uranus and Pluto and they think that the enemies would seriously
underestimate us if we wore something like this--"
"Underestimate us?! They'd think we're some showgirls who finagled the
command--"
Neptune mercilessly interupted Mars's tirade,"And that's all to
_our_ advantage. If they think that way, they'd be more slack, more
careless in the actual battle and that gives our troops more chances for
survival!" Neptune stopped and eyes sparkling, delivered her final
shot."Besides, it's not like you don't have the legs for it."
"And so, the senshi got their fukus and no one has gotten around to
changing it ever since. Not even Mars." Apollo finished with a bow.
"And then," prompted the child, " You haven't finished. You forgot
to tell me how they fought the bad guys and the general's reaction and
everything!"
Apollo gave her a wicked grin,"Oh, but it's all there in the
sqiggley things in those books." Have fun." and leapt down the bed and
vanished around the door just in time to avoid a large pillow thrown at
him.
The End
"What do you expect from a race who _likes_ to go around without wearing
anything."
Younger Serenity when asked to comment on the fuku.
"Serenity no baka!!!"
Mars after finding out that Serenity accidently (or not)
made the incorporation of the fuku into their transformations
irreversible.
"..."
Mars after 3 fires, 2 explosions and a mysterious
destruction of a certain fuku.
SO! what do you think? Email me and tell me what you liked/ hated about
it.
Sherlyn