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Starsign Staffs: The First Sign
Part 2
Written by Sailor Berchest
It wasn't hard to find the 'something'. In fact, the fleeing mass of bodies, swath of destruction, heat, and burnt-hair smell were clear indicators of the 'something'. Buildings were melted into each other, forming non-distinct masses of metal and plastic. Small fires still burned greedily, threatening small piles of trash. At first, Sailor Berchest stopped at each and splashed a small wave over it. Soon, Bothawui started grabbing her elbow and pulling her away... unless they could tell that the burning mass had been a life form.
Soot covered both senshi. Berchest's skin was blackened in smears, and Bothawui's normally vibrant hair was muted and caked in black. She combed through it absentmindedly as Berchest splashed water over a body. To their surprise, the creature reached up and grabbed her arm.
"Sailor Berchest," it gasped, pushing air through highly damaged vocal cords. "Nihen!"
She knelt down by the creature, and stared, horror rising up in her throat. Berchest started to reach out and cradle the creature, but couldn't think of a place to touch that wasn't burnt. She finally decided to touch the creature's hand, desperately trying to not recoil as the blackened skin came off, exposing raw pinkness beneath.
"Nihen... this ain't the most peaceful way t'die," The creature opened its blackened eyelids, showing clear, bright eyes beneath. "Nihen...make us proud, ok?"
Berchest recognized the voice now - the old Berchestian woman. "Please... don't..."
It was too late for Berchest's incomplete plea to reach the woman. She had released her tenuous grasp on life and fallen back.
"Lo sie...lo siento," the senshi said, tears streaking the soot on her face. "I'm so sorry."
Bothawui had watched from a slight distance, keeping her ears and eyes alert for the 'something'. Now, she approached the sobbing senshi and put her hand on Berchest's shoulder. "Suri," she said, keeping her voice low. "We have to go. We need to find whatever did this."
"I can't... I can't... leave her. What if she just sits here forever? What if no one can come here and give her a burial?" Berchest's eyes were desperate. "She deserves so much."
The other senshi spread her hands. "We can't sit here while other people are dying. Just because you don't know them doesn't make them any less important!"
Berchest's eyes filled with tears again. "Promise we'll come back?" Her voice was soft, and suddenly childlike.
"We have to go now," Bothawui responded, equally quiet. "If we can come back, we will." She took a firm grasp on the other senshi's elbow with one large paw and pulled her out into the street. Bothawui began to run, jerking on Berchest's arm. It took a few minutes for the other senshi to begin reacting and start running with her friend more than being swept along.
The buildings were crumbling around them. Berchest and Bothawui were focused on their goal, forced to block out the destruction around them. The air around them was growing warmer and thicker, as if they were leaning closer and closer to a fire.
The evidence bore this theory out. Buildings were still in the process of melting and burning as they passed, tendrils of flame stretching out towards them from the more active fires.
"Look," Berchest gasped, skidding to a stop. To their left, the spaceport was colored black with soot. To their right, it was... nonexistent. Something had cleaved the building through the middle, leaving a jagged line of half-destroyed concrete and melted steel. The ground below where the spaceport normally rose was littered with the rent hulks of spaceships and the tattered remains of creatures - each oozing what passed for blood.
Bothawui cursed, the words tumbling out of her mouth. Her ears were pinned back, pressed hard against her head. The Bothan's fur rippled in waves down her arms - a sure sign of strong emotion. She ran her paws over her fur, trying to smooth the tell-tale signs of emotion.
"What happened here?" Berchest demanded of the air. She needn't have spoken; Bothawui was already pointing towards the destruction's perpetrator.
A huge beast rose up from the center of the decimated half of the spaceport. It looked nearly humanoid, despite its unrealistic proportions. It stood as high as the buildings around it - several stories, at least - and was covered in glistening black scales. There was no hair on its head, and when it breathed, a forked tongue snaked between black lips. It was impossible to tell if the scales were natural protection from the fire it caused or some sort of artificial armor.
Berchest craned her neck upwards. "Nihen, what is that?!"
Noticing the two small senshi, the creature peeled its lips back in a horrible caricature of a smile, showing sharply pointed and perfectly white teeth. From behind the creature, two enormous, scaled wings unfurled. "Senshi," it snarled in a deep, masculine voice.
Thus identified, the two protectors struck poses, standing back to back and looking out at the creature. "We are Sailors Bothawui - senshi of silence and sorrow - and Berchest - senshi of water and crystal!" It was becoming second nature to announce their presence and taunt their opponents.
Feeling a little braver with Bothawui pressed against her, Berchest continued to shout "For the destruction you've caused, prepared to be vanquished!"
The creature began to laugh, his voice echoing off the few remaining buildings. "Senshi - I am the demon Enjou. I am destruction by fire!" He laughed again, this time holding out his hands and forming spheres of fire in each. Red, orange, and blue mingled together as the balls grew and the creature's hands turned from glistening black to glowing red-white. Enjou threw the fire, slamming it first into the surface of Coruscant before directing the pair to the senshi. They chewed into the ground, first separately, then coming together and growing quickly.
"Now would be a good time for water!" Bothawui shouted, running out of the fire's projected path.
Berchest closed her eyes, feeling tears welling up inside of her. She had no idea what to do; her attacks hinged on the crystalline nature of her planet more than the water, from what the senshi had been able to determine. The frustration grew with the heat from the fire until both were unbearable. Scenes from the desperate run to the spaceport glinted through her mind, faster and faster until the smoldering hulk of the old woman appeared. She felt the image of the dead woman was burning into her mind. The senshi could faintly hear Bothawui shouting, but the words had ceased to make sense.
She opened her eyes when she felt a furry grasp on her arm. The shouting was louder, in her ears now, and angrier... and the fire was on top of them. Berchest held her breath and stepped forward...
...and the two senshi fell down. Bothawui cursed again, rolling around on the featureless floor of the plane until the small fires in her fire were out. "Where are we and what just happened?" she demanded, her eyes filled with anger. "What happened to you?"
"I don't know," Berchest confessed. "I mean, that goes to the last question. The answer to the first one is... um, this is Peace. This is the plane I can access when I want to. If we stay here for a few minutes, the attack should cross over us and we should be able to go back to where we were and not get burned to... death." The word was difficult to force out.
Bothawui looked around. "I remember you telling me about it... but I thought it was supposed to have nothing on it. And be all white." The senshi gestured towards her left as she stood. "What's that?"
With a little smile, Berchest accepted the hand that Bothawui offered her. "I can leave things here, so sometimes I bring a snack or something."
"Ok... that explains the cookies." Bothawui held up a bag of sweets and shook them, causing her friend to blush. "But what about the big glowing thing?" She gestured with her ears again, making her earrings jingle.
Berchest turned, and stumbled backwards into the other senshi. "It's...a doorway, I think." The indicated feature did look like a door - a huge, old style door with hinges. It glowed vibrantly red, emblazoned with an orange symbol. The symbol appeared to be a very stylized bird.
"To where?" Bothawui demanded. When there was no answer, she flicked her ears backwards. "You should know these things," she chastised, softly.
Her friend wasn't paying attention; her entire being was focused on the door. It was calling her, and she felt as though if she didn't answer, she'd lose a part of herself forever. She began to walk towards the door and quickly broke into a run.
Bothawui flattened her ears against her head and followed. "Suri! Bad guy out there causing destruction! Can we do this later?" She knew that time moved more quickly outside the plane than inside, but was sure any loss of time would be disastrous.
The other senshi did not answer, having reached the door. Upon closer inspection, it was a persistent red, with orange details, and Berchest put her hand on the orange doorknob. With a gentle twist and firm shove, she pushed the door open.
From Bothawui's perspective, it looked as if the senshi turned red-orange. The gem in her front bow seemed to explode outwards, meeting the glow from behind the door and intensifying it. The red and the orange played over Berchest's body as she walked through the door. Bothawui followed.
"Where are we?"
"Another plane, I think," Berchest responded. "The door had the symbol of the My'tre on it... so, I guess..." She looked around. The plane was much smaller than the plane Peace, and covered in rolling red and orange hills. There was a breeze, as well, stirring the senshi's clothing.
Bothawui raised her paws. "Wait, you can get to more than one of these things?"
The purple-haired girl nodded. "Ten of them, altogether. Each one has a guardian from the Starsigns... or so Seiki told me. And she also said that I have to be more powerful to access each plane. I guess..." Berchest looked confused. "I don't feel more powerful."
Her friend put a hand on the dancer's shoulder. "Maybe you are more powerful. You just don't have the confidence to show it."
"You could be right," Berchest responded with a self-depreciating smile. "I don't have much confidence."
"That'll come, Nimar. That'll come."
The new voice made both women turn around, in defensive postures. Of course, Bothawui's fighting stance was much more effective than Berchest's please-don't-throw-anything-at-me stance.
The Berchii senshi straightened up when she spotted the source of the sound. "You! You're...the old woman!" She winced. "I mean, I don't mean that meanly... you're just the... I don't know your name," the senshi confessed, blushing.
"You're making my ears sore," Bothawui complained, flattening them against her head again.
The old woman hobbled over to the pair and put her hand on Berchest's arm. "Nimar, my name is Beauty. Ah am the guardian of the My'tre Staff, which is called Beautiful. Ah give it to the one who may lay her hands upon it."
The formal words sent a shiver down Berchest's spine. "I don't know the response," she said, her voice desperate and lost. "What am I supposed to say?"
Beauty looked sad. "Y'not been taught, dear?"
Berchest shook her head. "No... please, help me. Teach me!" The desperation in her voice was a surprise to the senshi. She hadn't realized the lack in her training and wanted to correct it as soon as she could.
"Perhaps y'guardian did not believe y'd be visitin' s'soon." Beauty shook her head. "That is barely an excuse, dear. You should be taught the Old Words." She sighed, and closed her eyes. "Y'must say this: 'Ah am the one who may lay her hands upon the staff, for Ah am called Beautiful.' Then y'may take the staff." Beauty pointed behind her to the wall of the plane. Positioned vertically in a glowing depiction of the My'tre symbol was a Staff.
The word in Berchest's mind was capitalized. The Staff looked clear, with two sharp triangles at each end. They looked like over-large spearheads. The center of the staff split into an ellipse.
"I am the one who may lay her hands upon the staff, for I am called Beautiful," she recited.
Beauty moved aside, and Berchest stepped forward. As she grew closer, the wind began to grow stronger, tossing her hair and senshi uniform about her. Berchest's hands hovered for a moment over the Staff before she grasped it tightly. The Beautiful Staff glowed bright red, then orange... then it exploded, sending millions of tiny shards outwards and throwing Berchest back.
Bothawui caught her and cursed. "What just happened?" the senshi demanded.
Her friend was lying limp in her arms murmuring in surprise. "Nihen, I broke it, I broke it... they're going to kick me out of the Senshi Force... I'm going to die..."
"What happened?" Bothawui demanded again.
The plane was silent and the wind had ceased. Beauty looked almost as surprised as the other Berchestian woman. "Well, Kitty, Ah don't rightly know. But it seems our senshi doesn't fit the requirements."
Bothawui favored the woman with an annoyed look. "Is it just an obsession with you people and cats? I'm Sailor Bothawui."
"Ah am sorry if Ah have offended you," the woman apologized. "Y'see, Ah know only what she knows about you and that is the name she thinks when she thinks you." Beauty bent down next to the collapsed dancer. "Nimar, precious, now... the requirement for the staff is that y'be Naturally Beautiful. Now, I hate t'ask, but have y'had any kinda...enhancement? Or any kinda scarring?"
"This is about my breasts, isn't it?" Berchest wailed. "I can make them go away!" She attempted to press her ample cleavage to a more normal size and was singularly unsuccessful. "Dr. Haruko said there wouldn't be any side effects! This is a side effect!"
"Force..." Bothawui complained, throwing her paws up over her ears. "I don't want to know!"
Beauty patted Berchest's leg. "Ah am afraid it is, Nimar. Honey, no, the damage is already done. Ah am afraid y'may not use this staff."
The senshi looked away. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "I'm so sorry."
"Cheer up," Bothawui tried to comfort her. "There are... what, eight more of these things?"
Beauty nodded. "She has a point, Nimar. Each Staff has a different requirement and even though y'don't pass this one, there'll be others." Beauty turned to the cat-like senshi. "Now would y'like to try?"
"What?" The Bothan flattened her ears against her head again. Her fur rippled down her neck.
"I thought only Berchii senshi could use the Staffs?" Berchest offered up. "That's what Seiki told me."
The old woman frowned. "Seiki, eh? Ah am sorry to say but she might be trouble. No, any senshi who passes the test can use the Staff."
Berchest let Bothawui help her up. "So, we have to leave and come back before we can get to it, right?" She glanced at the door.
"No, dear. Not while I'm in here with you." Beauty closed her eyes and the shattered staff reformed in the sign. She turned to the Bothan senshi. "Bothawui, my name is Beauty. Ah am the guardian of the My'tre Staff, which is called Beautiful. Ah give it to the one who may lay her hands upon it."
"I am the one who may lay her hands upon the staff, for I am called Beautiful," the senshi recited. She stepped forward like she'd seen Berchest do and reached for the staff. It glowed beneath her paws and the wind picked up again. Bothawui gently put her hands on the Staff and pulled it from the wall. She turned.
With the Staff away from the sign, it faded to black. Now, the more subtle features of the Staff were evident. It was half translucent orange and half translucent red, splitting in the middle.
Beauty put her hands on the Staff. "Y'have been tested and proved Beautiful. Take the Staff and go." She smiled, and fell out of the more formal voice. "Ah suspect y'haven't been told, but this Staff can create spheres of vacuum. To use it, y'just hold it straight out, cross it end over end, and command it." She'd moved Bothawui's hands into the correct position. "Now, think that y'want it to do something."
Bothawui looked a little confused, but pointed the center of the staff away from the other two and thought. From the center shot an orange-red ball. She flicked her ears in surprise.
"Good! Now if y'get some practice, y'll be able t'make bigger spheres. Be careful not t'injure y'self." Beauty patted her shoulder. "Now, Ah think y'ought to be getting back to the fightin'." She turned to Berchest. "Nimar, Ah am sorry for this. But please, understand it is for the best."
The senshi nodded, trying to be brave. "Let's go, then."
When they reappeared, all Bothawui and Berchest could hear was screaming. Unbelievably shrill and loud screaming.
"I swear I will kill what ever is making that noise!" Berchest shouted, trying to make herself heard.
"Bad idea!" Bothawui commented, pointing with the Staff. From the direction of the screaming - they were not in the sound's direct path - they could see what first appeared to be a glowing mass of color. It shifted, and they realized it was Sailor Hapes, barely held at bay by the demon's fire.
Berchest nodded, smiled, and focused her attention on the demon. It was in dire straits, clasping its hands over its ears and screaming back at the small, bright senshi. "Look!"
The screams were not only having the effect of deafening everything for a twenty-three and a half block radius, but they were also beginning to crack the demon's scales.
"Louder, Hapes!" Berchest shouted. "His scales are cracking!"
She wasn't sure if the senshi actually heard her, but Hapes was screaming louder. Unfortunately, the pair of senshi had caught the attention of Enjou. He roared at them and flung fire towards them.
Berchest froze, running through her attacks, desperate for water. She knew she couldn't create a wave large enough to quench the fire coming towards them...
...and suddenly, she didn't have to.
Bothawui stood, her arms crossed and the Staff extended. She looked slightly surprised, but pleased with herself. "No oxygen, no fire," the senshi explained to a confused Berchest. "Create a vacuum near enough to the fire, and it'll go out."
"Perfect!" Berchest congratulated her. "Now, let's see about some demon-slaying!"
The two ran over to where Hapes was standing and shouting. By this time, the demon was on his knees, remains of his amour strewn about him.
"Hapes, enough!" Berchest shouted, as they grew closer.
The senshi stopped shouting and blinked. "Hapes cannot get to it," she complained. "Hapes cannot kill it!" She gestured at the cavern created by one of the fireballs with anger.
"Crystal..." The sound of bells spilled into their ears, growing louder and mingling with the sound of a huge wave. Berchest was standing slightly apart from the other senshi. She was shaking all of her bells. "Ocean Waves!" Water poured from her hands, leaping across the chasm and freezing into a crystal bridge.
"Yay!" Hapes took off running. The other senshi followed her close behind.
Bothawui swung the Staff as the senshi grew close enough to the fallen demon. She'd defended against several fireballs - each smaller than the last - before arriving. The Staff sliced into the demon, causing dark fluid to leak out of the wound. It gave him new life; he rose up and swung at her with an enormous hand. Hapes latched on, using a piece of concrete she'd grabbed to beat the beast.
From a small distance, Berchest attacked. "Berchest... Crystal...!" the purple-haired senshi shouted. She took a slight run before flipping into the air. Her dancing skills served her well as she balanced on top of the demon. "Downpour!" Berchest drove the crystal deep into the back of the demon, holding it there as it exploded.
The force of the explosion threw her back, and she landed hard on the broken concrete.
Bothawui used the opening given as the demon leaned back again to drive a sharp end of the Staff deep into the demon's throat. The wound was fatal, but not instant. Bothawui grabbed Hapes and pulled her off, dragging her towards where Berchest was lying. She'd left the Staff buried in the demon's throat as she'd grabbed the other senshi and watched now as it exploded when the demon touched it.
"Not very Beautiful," the Bothan commented dryly as the demon fell, and lay still. It seemed to shrink and shrivel into a dried image of itself.
"My insides hurt..." Berchest moaned as she tried to lean up. "Oh, Nihen." The curse fell off her lips. "My outsides hurt too." She let her senshi outfit fade into her normal clothing, strangely clean and tear-free. "Someone help me up."
Her furred friend lifted an eyebrow as she faded into her normal clothing. The third senshi followed suit.
"Argent thinks Suri is broken!" The woman looked through her cobalt glasses.
Suri winced, and wondered if Argent wore the glasses to save herself from the blindingly bright colors that the girl tended to favor. "Suri thinks Suri is broken."
"Inga... I mean, I think that if you just hold still, you'll feel a lot better." Inga put her hands on Suri's arm and concentrated.
Suri was silent until Inga opened her eyes again. "Feel better?"
The dancer lifted herself up and looked at her hands. Before, they'd been a bloody mess, torn from the explosion and impact. Now, they were almost perfect. "My nails!" she wailed, teasing. For her effort, she got hit in the head. Suri smiled and stood. "I do feel a lot better. Thanks." She looked back over the spaceport. "Who's...who's going to fix all this?"
Argent and Inga joined her in staring at the ruined spaceport. Suri's crystal bridge had melted, and the remnants of other attacks were fading. Overall, about a third of the spaceport was destroyed and it appeared as if at least another third would be unusable until it had serious repairs.
"I don't know," Inga confessed. "Let's go check on my ship."
They started walking, but stopped to pull Argent along. "Argent is thinking!" the girl protested. She consented to being taken along, but stopped about five minutes into the climb. "Argent knows! It will take 5.68743 million credits to repair the spaceport! That is not counting the ships. Argent does not know all of them, but Argent can guess! 10.9872222 - the two repeats! - million. It is only a guess," she apologized.
"That's a lot of credits," Suri gulped. "Where will the government get that much money?"
Argent shrugged. "Already, the budget is close to breaking! Argent is afraid there is not enough money!" She looked distraught, as if it was the worst thing ever. The idea of running out of money probably was to the accountant.
Inga reached down and helped Argent over a pile of rocks. "Maybe there's something we can do to help."
"How?" Suri demanded. "I've got a lot of money, but not that much. And there will be other attacks and other sections of planets will be destroyed. Maybe together we could fix the spaceport, but what about when we destroy a university on Berchest? A trading post on Corellia? A house on Yavin IV?"
There was loud and excited squealing coming from the third member of the party. "Argent knows! Argent knows!" She was waving her hand as if she expected to be called on in class. "Argent is good with money! Argent makes little money into big money! Big!"
Inga caught Argent as she was about to fall off the tower of rocks they were on. "Careful," the bounty hunter warned.
Argent was not paying much attention as they kept climbing. "Argent could make a fund and make it profitable. Senshi could donate! And other people! And it could be tax write-offs!" Her voice took on an almost reverent tone. "Then Argent could make donations to places that they senshi destroy!"
There was a protest from Inga. "The senshi didn't destroy it. It was that... thing. That demon."
Suri didn't argue, though she felt like it. "Argent, could you really do that?"
The money manager nodded. "Argent could."
"Great! Let's do it then. And we can help out places that... get destroyed." Suri smiled. "Where's Inga?"
By this time, they'd reached the less destroyed section of the spaceport and Inga had taken off running. Suri followed her, the heels of her stilettos tapping lightly on the floor.
"Seiki?"
'Hmm?' the blue ghostie shimmered into view above Suri's shoulder, watching her piece together another commcard.
"Why could Inga use the Staff? I thought you said only Berchii senshi could use the Staffs?" Suri set her soldering iron down and looked up at her guardian. "I'm confused," she confessed. "And sad."
The blue ghostie gave her charge a pat on the shoulder that Suri couldn't feel. 'No, it's like I told you. Anyone who fits the requirements can use the Staffs. You just... didn't fit that one. I'm sorry. But don't worry. There are lots more!'
Suri frowned. "But I thought you said..." Her frown lightened. "I bet I just misheard you."
'I'm sure that's it.' Seiki looked down at her. 'But you need to listen more carefully from now on. You never know when something important might happen. And if you miss it...' Her voice trailed off ominously as she vanished.