Dream World Part 1: Brian
This is my second Sailor Moon fanfiction work, and follows the events that occurred in the first, "Time Twister." (Spoiler Warning: If you have not read "Time Twister," it is important that you know before reading this that this takes place in what must be considered an alternate reality SM universe; the most significant change and the only one that you really need to know beforehand is that in this reality, Neflyte did not die.)
This storyline is based in the North American Sailor Moon universe, except that Rei's and Zoisite's names are spelled according to the Japanese episodes for my own personal preference. Also, this story takes place between the end of the Sailor Moon R series, and the beginning of the Sailor Moon S series.
Should you notice a glaring problem with details in this work, please let me know, so I can try to clarify or correct it.
This story is dedicated to my girlfriend, Nikki "Jetwolf" Purvis, who has an amazing knack for turning caterpillars into butterflies; she does it for my stories just like she's done it for my life. An extra-special thanks goes to her for her extensive advice, fact-checking, support and for posting this up for me.
I'd also like to thank Naoko Takeuchi for the creation of these wonderful characters that I'm using; and the following people for their pre-post comments, suggestions and critiques: "Tuxedo Will" Wolfshohl, UPN Mulder, Belial, Conrad Knauer, and Novareinna.
Disclaimer: Sailor Moon and all characters contained within this work are the copyright of Naoko Takeuchi, Toei Animation, Kodansya and probably lots of other big people I'm forgetting. I am using them without permission, but suing me because of it would be futile as I have nothing. Sylvite is my own creation, but if any of the above wish to use him, then I would be honored. Feel free to distribute this work around (for no profit, of course; If I'm not making any, why should you?), as long the included text is unmodified. If you publish or repost it somewhere, please let me know.
Comments, criticism, flames, etc. welcomed (and, in fact, requested) at Ultrace@aol.com.
Dream World Part 1: Brian
A Sailor Moon fanfic by Mike Chenoweth [Ultrace@aol.com]
September, 1996
Mina was sitting at lunch, alone. This was not unusual; as Sailor V, she'd never had much of a social life, always having to make excuses for why she couldn't go to the mall or parties or such, and she hadn't made many friends as a result. A lot of the students saw her as a snob because of it.
Her responsibilities as Sailor Venus were easier to deal with--she had four friends to help her out--but she still had to be on-call at any time, always prepared to drop whatever she was doing and go stop the latest attempts of the Negaverse to take over the world. She had been reminded of that only the day before, when the Scouts had to stop some sort of monster rampage.
No, Mina being alone at lunch was not unusual. What was unusual was that today it was bothering her. There was only so many times that she could see and hear about Serena and Darian's great romance without becoming depressed about the fact that she had no one herself. She wanted to think that she was over Alan, but there hadn't been anyone like him in her life since the day she faked her own death. Two years...
Amy had Greg, even if they were some distance apart from each other... Rei could have Chad wrapped around her finger any time if she wanted him... But how did Lita stand this feeling?
"Excuse me," someone behind her began, "is this seat taken?"
Mina snapped out of her daze, surprised that someone would ask the question in the first place. There were plenty of other empty seats apart from the one next to her.
She turned around to look at the boy and got something caught in her throat. He was cute... No, cute couldn't quite describe it. Not too tall, not too muscular--just right, with reddish-brown hair, sparkling blue eyes, and a smile that melted something deep down inside her. "No, not at all," she managed to get out.
"Good, I was hoping you wouldn't mind if I sat here. You looked kind of lonely all by yourself," he said, sitting down next to her.
"Me, lonely?" she said, with the little laugh she used when trying to deny something that was clearly true. "No way."
"Oh, did you want to be alone, then?" the boy asked, disappointed. He started to get up. "I don't want to intrude."
Mina grabbed his sleeve and sat him back down firmly but gently. "Please. Stay."
`I have got to be dreaming,' she thought.
The boy's name was Brian. He was an eighth-grader, like Mina, who had recently transferred from a different school. Mina didn't question why--she just considered it good fortune for him to cross her path.
For the next twenty minutes or so, the two of them discussed nothing much in particular. When the bell rang to signal the end of lunch, Mina was mildly disappointed.
"Thanks for letting me sit here. I really enjoyed talking with you," Brian told her as he got up to leave.
"Same here," Mina said. She watched him throw away the remainder of his lunch and walk off, then realized she was going to be late for class if she didn't stop daydreaming and get a move on.
`Serena is not going to believe this!' she said to herself.
"I don't believe it!" Serena yelled, excitedly. "Tell me all about him!"
"Don't get any ideas," Mina warned, in a low voice. "He's mine."
Half of Serena's excitement instantly vanished. "But--"
"I met him first, he goes to MY school, and YOU have Darian!" Mina said. "He's mine."
"Okay," Serena said, deflated. She bounced back quickly, however. "But tell me about him anyway!"
Serena, along with Amy, Lita and Rei, listened as Mina described Brian in vivid, if overly romantic, detail. Luna and Artemis, sitting in Amy's and Mina's laps, merely looked at each other and rolled their eyes.
"Wow... He sounds just like my old boyfriend..." Lita said.
Mina ignored her, as did everyone else. "He's probably even going to call me later."
"Hey, did he say that?" Serena asked, impressed.
"Well, no, not really..."
"Did you give him your phone number?" Serena asked, this time warily.
"Um, no..."
Serena sighed. "Then what makes you think he's going to call you?"
"We didn't meet to discuss love lives," Luna said, interrupting the two. "There are more important matters at hand, you know."
"Luna's right," Amy said. "We need to try to find out why that monster appeared yesterday. I'm sure it wasn't just a random occurrence."
The attack had surprised all of them; it had only been three weeks since Rini returned to Crystal Tokyo in the future and the Dark Moon family was destroyed. No one was expecting the Negaverse to make another move quite so soon.
"Unfortunately, that's as good a reason for the attack as any other we've got," Artemis said. "We don't have much information on our new enemies."
"When Rubeus and the Four Sisters were striking at locations, I started work on a program to try and discover any possible patterns in their attacks," Amy said. "I didn't finish the program in time to use it against them, but it may be of some use here. From your descriptions the monster was more interested in the store than in attacking people, so we could use the program to track any encounters with monsters we have and perhaps in the process predict where they'll strike next."
"And we might actually learn something about who's sending them," Rei said.
"Precisely. Of course, I'll need help from all of you. I wasn't even there during the attack yesterday, so you'll have to fill me in on what happened," Amy said.
Serena and Rei were the only two present when it had started, but Mina had been close enough to respond to their call. The three of them gave Amy the details of what the monster looked like, where it was at the time, and what it was doing. Amy punched it all in.
"So, what's the computer say?" Serena asked, apparently not having followed a word of what Amy had told them.
"This is only one entry," Amy started, "there isn't enough data--"
Rei interrupted her. "Go ahead, humor her," she said, with a wicked smile.
Amy sighed, and entered the command for the computer to evaluate the information. After about twenty seconds, it was done. Amy translated the technical terms for them. "According to the enemy's current pattern, there are 1,257 locations in the city where they're likely to strike next. The point of origin for their attacks is unknown."
"Oh," Serena said. After a pause, she added, "Does that mean it's working?"
"Not unless you can guard over 1200 spots at once," Rei said.
Amy turned off the computer. "The next few encounters should tell us what we need to isolate a pattern--if there is one."
There wasn't much else for them to discuss, and none of it Scout business. Mina and Serena argued for the next half hour about Brian and whether he could compare to Darian; the argument eventually ended in a draw. After that, the five girls and their two cats split up to go separate ways.
Mina was on her way home, with Artemis curled up in her arms, when they bumped into Brian.
"Hey, you know, I was just thinking about you," he said.
Mina smiled--it was just the sort of thing she'd wanted to hear. "Really?"
"Yeah, I was hoping to get to see you again. Before tomorrow, that is..."
There was a moment between them when it didn't seem like anything need be said. Artemis, however, felt the urge to stir anxiously in Mina's arms.
Brian looked at Artemis. "Is this your cat? He's cute." He reached down to tickle Artemis under the chin. Artemis purred in response, repressing a hiss. Something about this Brian didn't seem right.
"This is Artemis," Mina said, not noticing that the cat was stiffening in her arms.
"How appropriate, with that little moon symbol on his head," Brian said.
"Yeah..." Mina agreed, though she probably would have responded the same way if Brian had suggested jumping in front of a moving car.
`Mina, you airhead! Snap out of it!' Artemis thought.
"I was thinking earlier that maybe we could get together and work on homework or something..." Brian said, waiting for a response.
"Sure!" Mina exclaimed. "Are you busy?"
Brian looked taken aback. "Now? Uh, no, I'm not busy. I don't have any of my books, though."
"That's okay," Mina said, not missing a beat. "You can come over to my house and help me out. My parents are on a business trip, so they won't mind. Are you any good at math?"
Brian smiled. "Sure, that's one of my best subjects."
"Then it's settled. If it takes too long, you might have to stay for dinner," Mina told him.
Brian did wind up staying for dinner, cooked by Mina and surprisingly good, during the three hours he spent at her house, but he finally left after helping her finish up both math and english. Mina reluctantly watched him go. By then, it was almost eight o'clock, and she spent the rest of the evening before going to bed gazing out her window at the stars.
Artemis knew that she would not be listening to anything he had to say that night. He would have to wait until later to talk to her about Brian.
Mina went to sleep quite contented and hopelessly in love.
