“Amy! Hotaru!” The assassin yelled, as she ran to catch up with them.
    Hotaru (through the small eye slits) looked up at Amy. “I’m not disguised well, am I?” The ghost asked.
    “No Hotaru, everyone knows I’m with you. Lita! What are you doing here?” Said a smiling enchantress.
    “I was giving… wait. Cool! I got invited to the same party as you two!” A lovely princess came up in the next second. Her crown glistened as she gawked at her friends.
    “You guys too…”
    “Everyone recognizes me! No one’s going to be scared!” Hotaru said, as she grumbled a bit. Then, they all stared as Serena (a French Maid) and Sailor V came skipping their way. Raye smiled impishly, and whispered to Hotaru.
    Hotaru hid behind a tree, and when Serena came past, she jumped out and shouted Boo! Everyone laughed when Serena screamed, turned and started to run! If it weren’t for Lita (since Amy and Raye weren’t really dressed for running), she probably would’ve run all the way home.
    “Well, here’s the mansion.” Amy said after a few minutes. All eyes were on the doors, as they swung open. Amy walked up the stairs, and before she reached the top, a skeleton dropped down from above! She screeched as she stumbled down the stairs.
    “Amy!” Hotaru said, as she ran up to the enchantress. “Are you scared?”
    “Yes. Just as I ought to be! That thing came from no where!”
    “It is a haunted house.” Raye observed. As she walked onto the welcome mat, an eerie spine tingling voice filled the air. She put her back to the wall in fright.
    “Where’s it coming from?”
    “Hush!” Hotaru said. The voice had finished saying something along the lines of hello, and now spoke clearer.
    “I am Count Von Christian. This is my house of horrors. Each of you are to enter the front door, and take a different route. At the end there is a reward for the ones who make it there… alive. Also, I would like it if all belongings were left on the table outside. Remember… this is no fun house. The goblins that control my house are true monsters. Come in.” As the voice concluded, the doors opened. Serena cringed visually. Mina put on a brave front, and walked in.
     To be scared out by another dropping skeleton. After they entered, the tables were clearly laid out. Each had a name on it, representing each of the girls. Hotaru ran right over to her table to put her briefcase and journal. Serena, carrying nothing with her looked around. As each one emptied their belongings (purses, bags, briefcases and anything that wasn’t costume oriented) they perused the way. In a second however, the room went completely black!
    All eyes were on the man who shone through the darkness. “It is so very good to meet all of you, for the first, and let me assure you, very last time. When the lights are back on, you will know which way to go. Go, and never return.”

    When the light did return, there was no way for them to go. The doors hadn’t been marked in anyway.  It finally dawned on Amy that something wasn’t right. She quickly tried to open the entrance door, but was knocked back by an invisible force. She knew it! Why else would only the Sailor Scouts be invited? It was a trap.
    “Everyone, don’t go anywhere yet. Something isn’t right.”
    “You always were the smart one, Mercury.” Jedite’s voice said, loud and clear. The girls rushed for their things, and each found only their pen remaining. “Your belongings are outside. With that annoying black cat.”
    “Luna!” Serena cried out. “What have you done with Luna!”
    “Nothing, but your friend Sailor Neptune will die at midnight.”
    “Sailor Neptune?” All the voices asked in unison.
    “Another Sailor Scout. She is locked behind one of these doors. Good luck, Sailor Brats. Go ahead and transform if you like. It will make things more interesting.”
     “Moon Prism, Power!” The leader, the fighter of love and justice, Sailor Moon! Her image quickly shone through a haze of bright multi colored lights.
     “Mars Star, Power!” A burning circle of fire surrounded the princess from head to toe, as each one materialized into the sailor fuku, Sailor Mars was there in a fiery flash!
     “Mercury Star, Power!” The enchantress’s form washed away, only to be replaced by one with a real tiara, and real magic. The Senshi of Water, Sailor Mercury!
     “Jupiter Star, Power!” In a brilliant flash of lightening and white-hot light, Sailor Jupiter appeared! No longer was she Lita Kino, but she was the Sailor Scout of Jupiter.
     “Venus Star, Power!” Golden lights danced around Sailor V, as the old form melted away to a newer, grander form. Sailor Venus, Codename Sailor V, was back!
      “Saturn star power.” Hotaru said weakly. Purple lights flashed around her, and in an instant Hotaru wasn’t a ghost, but a vague semblance of the grim reaper, with her glaive.

     Lita smiled. “I’ll take the bottom door!” As she was about to dart, a hand grabbed her shoulder. She turned around and saw Amy, shaking her head.
    “No. If this Count fellow is anywhere near, whoever Neptune is, then she’s on the second floor.” As she was saying this, two wolves appeared out of the top double doors. The wolves howled.
    “Eeek!” Hotaru whined, as she desperately looked for an escape.
    The other Sailor Scouts took positions at the bottom of the stairs. The wolf on the right waited, but the one on the left charged the scouts. Sailor Moon, Venus, and Saturn easily were set to meet its attack. The three parried each claw attack that came their way. They each in turn took strikes at him, the wolf fell on all fours, whimpered and ran back up the stairs and out. Sailor Jupiter however finally lost her patience with the other wolf. She charged up the stairs and began to grapple with it.

    “Lita! Get away from it!”  Serena shouted, making her way up the stairs. As she reached the middle, the stairs under her gave out. Hotaru ran to get her, but Serena disappeared from view. The darkness below quickly swallowed her.
    Mina and Hotaru, wary of the trap, flipped to the top of the stairs. They each watched as Lita was drawn closer to the center. Then, as she was lined up with the door, the wolf just vanished. Lita stood there stunned, for a second. But no more. The other wolf leapt from the door knocking Lita off the stairwell. She plummeted towards the floor below screaming. Before she hit the ground though, a trapdoor gave out and she too was gone. The wolf grinned wildly.
    “That’s enough from you… pretty boy!” Mina shouted. She held up a V with her fingers, and let the beam fly. It hit into the wolf with amazing force. But inches in front of it, it shattered into hundreds of smaller crescent beams, smashing it from all angles. In a second, the wolf creature collapsed to the ground, dead.
    Amy quickly ran a computer scan of the area where Lita had fallen. She knelt down and looked at it.  “It’s sealed shut. I couldn’t get through there with another of Lita’s crescent beams.” She said.
    “Probably same for Serena’s trap door?” Raye asked, cautiously approaching it.
    “Yes.”
   Hotaru stifled a sniffle, and ran. She ran through the double doors that were at the top of the stairs. She didn’t go far, just inside where she could collapse and cry alone. Serena and Lita were gone. And above that, she had no clue were they were, if they were alive. And, there was… oh well. No use crying over it.

    In a minute, Lita regained consciousness, as well as conscious control. Thoughts came rushing to her. Where was Serena?  Where were the others? She stood up. Standing near the entrance was a tall man, whose face was completely white. No color even in his eyes or hair.
    “Sailor Jupiter, I am Count Von Christian. I am a vampire. Do not be afraid.” He made an odd motion with his hand. Lita’s eyes glazed over, as he approached her. His two front teeth slowly elongated into fangs, as he plunged them into her neck. Lita collapsed, drained somewhat, of blood, Christian smiled.
     “Awake in three days hence no more alive then dead. Awake in three days hence, as a warrior of night. Awake in three days hence, as one with me, as a vampire.” In a snap, Sailor Jupiter appeared in her house, in her bedroom, in her normal clothes, asleep.

    Sailor Neptune looked left, and then right.  On another altar was a girl with odd blond pigtails.  Neptune couldn’t mover her hands at all.  So she had to settle for shouting at the top of her lungs.  This drew the attention of Christian, as he and one of the wolves walked through the door.
    “Good evening Neptune.  Ready to die?  Only one more hour.”  The wolf grinned with anticipation, of being cured.
    “Christian, I officially loathe you.”  She said with as much dignity as she could.
    “That’s nice.  And Sailor Moon, your friends killed one of my wolves.  I’m afraid all of you will have to become one of my little ‘friends’ tonight.  Don’t worry their in good hands.”

    “Mercury Bubbles… Blast!” Amy shouted, as the bubbles fogged the entire hallway. The wolf looked about, and charged her previous position. It found a hard wall waiting there for it.  It turned around, and the fogged cleared.
    “Mars… Fire… Ignite.”  Raye said, rather dutifully. The fire streamed towards the wolf, and ignited it. The wolf squealed once, before collapsing in a dead heap. The remaining four scouts darted into the next room. There they found a large gaping whole. The hole was too big for them to jump or ignore. Finally they heard a voice at the bottom yelling for help.
    “That’s Serena!” Mina said with a clap. She pulled her chain free, and dropped it. She held it for a second, and then everyone saw it get pulled taut. A second passed by, then another. Suddenly Mina screamed as she was pulled down the gorge. Amy, Raye, and Hotaru tried to grab onto her, but they were to late. When she had completely disappeared, a small bridge opened across the floor.
    “Wait.”  Amy said.  “It could be another trick.”
    “Alright, I’ll go across first.”
    “You will not Tomoe Hotaru!”  Amy said.
    “But I’m not scared.”
    “Courage isn’t the act of bravery without fear, it’s action in spite of fear.  I think it would be safest if we all went across together. That way if it is a trap, we won’t be separated.” Amy remarked, Hotaru smiled and the three began across the gorge. They reached the other side in haste.

    Christian looked at his catch. Sailor Moon, Venus and Neptune were all lined up on their altars. Which would be the next Scout to fall victim to him? He wondered. He looked at his monitor. They were at the last stairwell, going down into the basement. He captured, three! But, he had captured four! That meant… that there were seven, not six! He cursed, on another monitor he saw his second wolf companion slain.

    Raye approached the door cautiously. Amy motioned for her to stay back, so she did. Amy ran a computer check on it. “It appears safe… but I wouldn’t touch it anyway. Hotaru, use your glaive and knock it open.”
    In a second Hotaru’s silence glaive pushed the door open. The three descended. The darkness they found themselves in what they had dealt with before. It was when a sound to the right startled them that they screamed. All eyes turned to Luna in a cage. The cat dangled precariously over an open hole. Behind it was a closet, to its right and left were wash basins and other such things. Luna meowed for help, as the heat was obviously beginning to get her. Hotaru looked at the cat sympathetically.
    “Don’t worry kitty, I’ll get you.” She walked over, and as she touched the cage, it drifted away like gas. She stood there for a second, and before Raye or Amy could grab her, the closet was flung open. Two strong arms reached out, and took her by her shoulders.
    “Mars… fire…”
    “NO!  You might hit Saturn!” Amy said, knocking Raye’s hands aside. Hotaru, her glaive, and all disappeared behind the closet, which then magically winked out of existence.
    “Raye… this is too scary.”
    “I know what you mean Amy. But there’s only one way to get to Serena and the others!”
    “How is that?”
    “Rin…” Raye began her chant to drive away the evil spirits, her paper suddenly seemed alive with energy. Flinging it into the wall, the extra spatial portal opened. Amy quickly scanned it, and Raye darted in. In a second the portal closed.
    “No! Raye!”  Amy called out.  But the portal had shut.
 
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