Author's Note: As dedicated fans of Sailor Moon are well aware, the Sailor Scouts are known as "magical girls", meaning that their amazing super powers are based on magic. Well, that got me to thinking about magical girls in Anglo-Saxon lore, better known as witches, so I thought it would be highly intriguing if the Scouts clashed with an honest to gosh witches' coven. But there won't be anything typical about these spellcasters who are teenage girls, just like the Scouts, complete with names of famous fictional spellcasters whom you may have heard of. Also, this will be my first story that takes Serena and the girls out of Tokyo as I bring them to America, specifically, my own stomping grounds of Philadelphia where the girls not only have to deal with the menace of their magical antagonists, but a fair amount of culture shock on top of that. All in all, I think this will make for quite an entertaining story where magical girls battle magical girls, and may the better team win! Sailor Moon and all related characters are the property of Takeuchi Naoko, Toei Animation and DIC. So, please, don't sue me because I haven't any money. I do this strictly for entertainment purposes, not copyright infringement.
The Witches Of Philadelphia
by Jeffrey C. Branch
Prologue
Rating: PG-13
Four teenage girls, seated in the lotus position on the cold concrete floor of the basement formed a circle as they held hands and softly muttered strange, unknown words in uniformly perfect pitch.
Their eyes closed, their heads tilted slightly back, the girls were oblivious to the world as they spoke. In the center of the circle they formed was a large, weathered and ancient looking book with a thick, black cover which had in large red letters, 'Darkholde'. The book sat in the middle of a large, black plastic sheet that had a circle drawn on it with red paint, and in that circle were drawings and symbols in an outer circle while the inner circle had a large pentagram. The basement was dark, save for candles that surrounded the book and burned in front of the girls.
One of the girls, a platinum blonde with porcelain pale skin that was overly made up tilted her head forward and opened her eyes. However, her pupils were rolled back into her head, showing nothing but whites as her bright red lips parted.
"Futura....visionious....projectra," she whispered, her voice a guttural rasp.
The girl to the blonde's right, an Asian with waist long, straight black hair was next to tilt her head forward and open her eyes. Like the blonde, her pupils weren't showing as she spoke.
"Futura....visionious....projectra," she said in an identical rasp.
The third girl to the blonde's left, more handsome than pretty with close cropped dark brown hair and broad shoulders followed suit.
"Futura....visionious....projectra."
The fourth girl, a stunning, willowy beauty with shoulder length, curly red hair followed suit like her cohorts.
"Futura....visionious....projectra."
In one voice, an identical voice, the girls chanted the same phrase in perfect cadence, over and over. The flames of the candles grew brighter as the girls chanted.
"Futura....visionious....projectra!"
Suddenly, the foursome slowly lifted off the floor and hovered in place, a good two feet above straw mats they were sitting on. Yet, they ignored this as they chanted louder and the candle flames grew brighter, illuminating the basement like fluorescent lights.
"Futura....visionious....projectra!"
Then, a ghostly image materialized in the center of the circle over the book. The image was hazy, unclear, like white smoke, but it showed six forms who were flying across a large body of water from the east and were headed to where the foursome lived. A hushed female voice only they could hear told the girls that these were beings of vast and incredible power who were both young yet ancient, possessed of wisdom and intelligence, beauty and strength, passion and fury. These beings were coming to battle them. Coming to hurt them. Coming to destroy them if they could.
"Futura....visionious....projectra!" the girls yelled as one and the image vanished. Then, they slowly descended to the floor and the candles flared out, throwing the basement into darkness. Panting loudly, the girls broke the circle and crumpled, panting loudly from exertion. After a couple of minutes, the blonde reached for a nearby flashlight and switched it on. She slowly got up from the floor and walked over to the far wall and turned on the lights.
"Damn. That really wears me out," the blonde grumbled. She pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling a headache coming on. That always happened when she and the others performed a divination. But, unlike all the other visions she and her friends shared before, this one worried her. She felt a chill, but not from the dampness of her basement. Smoothing the dark blue skirt of her Catholic school uniform jumper, Sabrina Mangione returned to where the others were sitting up. "You guys saw what I did?"
Samantha Cho, the Asian girl nodded. Standing up, she stretched. There was a haunted look in her almond colored eyes. She didn't like the way the whole situation with the book was developing. Devoted as she was to computers, science and technology, Samantha, an honor roll student in her high school wasn't supposed to believe in witchcraft and the occult, yet, here she was, deeply involved in it all. "Sure did, Bree. What do you think it meant?"
"Probably nothing. Half of those goofy visions we've had were bogus anyway," growled Jeannie Travers, the brawny, muscular brunette. Jumping up, she flexed her left bicep, then her right, emphasized in the Gold's Gym t-shirt she wore. She was late for her daily workout since the meeting for the divination was called by Blair at the last minute. That angered her since she hated to deviate from her regimen. "This one's probably a lemon too."
"I don't know, Jean. Something about that vision gave me the chills," Sabrina countered. "There may be something to this one. We wouldn't have been called if this was a red herring. What do you think, Blair?"
"Sabrina's right. I think this vision is going to come true," said Blair Witasick, the redhead. Standing up, she slipped on black Gucci pumps and walked over to a chair where her purse was. Opening it, she took out a gold plated compact and checked her appearance in it's mirror. Beauty was very important to her. "I believe we're about to be tested by the book. It wants to find out if we're worthy of commanding it's great power and completing it's sacred mission. It's sending us a challenge."
"A challenge? Those six beings it mentioned?" asked Samantha. She always felt unnerved whenever Blair talked about the book as if it were alive, which had been often of late. The very first time Samantha heard the voice in her head from the book during their first gathering, a voice that, despite being feminine was guttural and menacing, she nearly wet her pants from fright.
Blair nodded. Satisfied her appearance was up to her usual demanding standards, she put away the compact and faced her friends. "Precisely, Sam. Beings of vast power who are coming from the east."
"East? East where? New Jersey? New York?" asked Jeannie. She occasionally found Blair's cryptic attitude highly annoying.
"Not hardly. According to the vision, these beings will cross a large body of water to confront us. That means an ocean."
"Europe? That's east of here," said Sabrina.
Blair folded her arms and thought on that for a moment. "Maybe farther than that, Bree. Think Far East. As in China or Japan."
Jeannie snorted. "So we've got yellow eyed chinks wanting to throw down with us. Big freakin' whoop. Gooks don't frighten me." She turned to Samantha and grinned. "Er, no offense, Sam."
"None taken, Jean," said Samantha who was Korean. But the frosty tone of her voice said otherwise. It was common knowledge that Jeannie was bigoted and was quick with a racial slur whenever the mood suited her.
"Anyhoo, I'm not worried. We've got the power to handle anything." Jeannie turned and pointed an index finger at a foot tall, bulbous green vase with yellow flowers on a stand ten feet away. The brunette closed her eyes and concentrated. Her body suddenly glowed from a yellow aura.
"Altera, gravitas....BASHIR" she said.
The vase vibrated violently for several seconds, then collapsed into shards. Sabrina glared daggers at her.
"That'll cost you fifty bucks, wiseass," she grumbled. "My mom won that for my birthday on ebay a month ago."
Jeannie smirked and slapped Sabrina on the shoulder. "Then I did you a favor, honeybunch. That thing was butt ugly."
"Maybe so, but, a gift is a gift," said Samantha who pointed at the remnants of the vase and concentrated. Her body glowed a bright orange.
"Objectum, conformetas....ASSEMBLIS!" The pieces vibrated, then reassembled on the stand in perfect condition, without a single crack on it. Samantha grinned, proud of her small achievement.
"Showoff!" Jeannie growled.
"Enough! We were given our powers for a purpose! Not for playing games!" Blair snapped. "The book says we've been chosen as avatars to usher in a new age. And I believe that with all my heart. If these beings from the east stand in our way, then we'll have to destroy them!"
Sabrina, Samantha and Jeannie gave Blair a cautious look. When the rich girl came to them with the book six months ago and saw firsthand the incredible force it contained, they formed the coven after having bonded with the mysterious tome by spilling their blood on it and were blessed with the powers they now possessed.
Their reasons for wanting to use their powers were purely selfish: fame, wealth, material things, boyfriends, typical desires framed in the narrow mindset of teenage girls. But Blair, more or less the leader of the group approached her involvement with a disturbingly rabid devotion, as if the book's whispered promises of ultimate power, whispers the girls all heard in their heads was the only thing in this world that she lived for and cared about, despite her family's wealth and prominence.
"Sure thing, Blair. Whatever you say," said Sabrina. Although Blair was her best friend, there were times when she never understood what made the spoiled redhead tick. And since the book came into their lives, Sabrina began to seriously wonder, and worry about Blair's sanity, and her own.
Sabrina idly stared at her right palm, and the scar that crossed it from the ceremony. She remembered the tremendous pain when Blair sliced open her flesh with the ceremonial dagger and shuddered at seeing her blood pour like water from the wound and onto the cover of the book. She recalled her screams of agony as well as those of Samantha and Jeannie as their blood mingled with hers. But Blair never uttered a sound when she cut herself. If anything, there had been a look of utter rapture on her face.
However, the pain didn't last long. Sabrina suddenly felt soothingly warm as the book absorbed the blood spilled on it's cover, then filled her body with it's power. That was when she and the girls started hearing the voice in their minds, sweet and honeyed and female, yet dripping with terrible menace. It made Sabrina wonder if they had made a mistake in bonding with the book and it's dark secrets. But it was already far too late for her or any of the others to back out. The book would not allow that. That made the blonde shiver.
"Just one question. How are we supposed to know what this enemy looks like?" Samantha wondered aloud. "And how are we going to find them?"
"I'm not quite sure, Sam, but I have a feeling that the enemy is going to come to us," said Blair.
Jeannie was skeptical. "Really? What makes you say that, Einstein?"
The look Blair gave the brunette was chilling in it's fervor, if not it's mania. "The book told me of course."
Hearing that, Sabrina shivered a second time.
NEXT: Magical Mystery Tour