Author's Note: Sailor Moon and all related characters are the property of Takeuchi Naoko, Toei Animation and DIC. All references to Vulcan are the province of Gene Roddenberry and Paramount Studios. 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
Chapter One: Magical Mystery Tour
Rating: PG-13

One week later....

Amy Anderson, Lita Monroe and Mina Spencer gasped from awe as they and a throng of sightseers stared at the famous Liberty Bell. Talia Kirk, having visited Philadelphia with her parents when she was eight looked at America's most famous historical icon with her usual dispassionate expression.

"Wow! This is so awesomely cool!" squealed Mina, snapping a picture of the bell with a single use disposable camera. "If I were an American, I'd be proud to live here in Philadelphia! The place where life, liberty and the pursuit of cheerfulness was born!"

Amy, wearing her glasses, looked up from a tourist book of the city she held and giggled. "That's 'happiness', Mina."

"Whatever!"

The girls, along with forty of their classmates and a dozen teachers from Crossroads High School in Tokyo were selected to come to Philadelphia on a cultural and historical field trip to learn all about the city where America was born. Everyone had been excited about the trip abroad, none more than Serena and the girls who eagerly looked forward to getting out of the city and temporarily leaving behind their duties as the Sailor Scouts for the ten day excursion. It was rare that the girls got to enjoy life away from their responsibilities and they meant to make the most of their opportunity.

Other than historical excursions with their classmates, the girls looked forward to exploring the City of Brotherly Love on their own. For Amy, she was eager to spend a day at the huge, main branch of the Philadelphia Library, for Talia, she looked forward to visiting the world renowned Franklin Institute Science Museum. Lita and Mina were dying to venture out to the sprawling King of Prussia Mall in the city's western suburbs to shop while Serena and Raye hoped there would be time for a side trip to the beaches of Atlantic City to work on their tans. In short, all the girls wanted to do was have fun.

"I'm surprised you feel that way, babe," said Lita to Mina with a playful smirk. "Technically, you're British. I thought you'd be a bit peeved 'cause you lost the colonies to those upstart Yanks!"

Mina casually dismissed Lita's words with a wave of her hand. "Think again, love. I'm no more a Brit these days than you're a Vulcan." She then grinned nervously at Talia, standing next to her. "No offense, Tal."

Talia nodded. "None taken, Mina. It is unfortunate that Serena and Raye are not here. Considering we are on a historical field trip, I thought they would have joined us."

Lita snorted. "Are you kidding? When Serena found out there was a comic book store not far from here on South Street, she and Raye tore outta our hotel for that place like two bats from hell after fibbing to Miss Haruna that they were sick. What a pair of goofballs!"

"You got that right, sister!" said Mina with a giggle. "Serena and Raye can't agree on what day of the week it is, but when it comes to comic books, they're like two peanuts in a pod!"

"That's 'peas'," corrected Amy again.

"Whatever!" Mina went to take another picture, but nothing happened. "Darn it! Out of film! Hey, Lita! Could one of you loan me some cash so I can buy a new camera?"

Lita scowled at her partner. "That's twenty bucks you've borrowed from me already, you golddigger. Who do you think I am? Ivana Trump?"

Mina giggled. "Nah. She has more class."

"Hardy har har. No respect, not even from my so-called best friend. Just for that, the bank's closed! So suffer, sweetheart!"

Mina turned to Amy who shook her head. "As Benjamin Franklin, Philadelphia's most famous citizen once said: 'Neither a borrower nor a lender be'. In other words, sorry."

Looking desperate, Mina gazed at Talia. "Tal? Help out a friend?"

"I would gladly assist you, Mina, but I only brought enough money on today's excursion for lunch and carfare," the Vulcan girl said. "My apologies."

Mina pouted like a child, making Lita laugh. As the group left the Liberty Bell Pavilion, the ponytailed brunette turned to Talia. "Say, Tal, I never got to thank you for helping me with my, er, problem. If it wasn't for that little trick of yours, I'd still be back home in Tokyo."

Talia nodded. "It was nothing, Lita. Simply a mental suggestion I placed in your mind that temporarily blocked your stifling fear of airplanes. However, I doubt I could permanently cure your phobia. From what I gathered during my mind meld, it is too deeply ingrained into your psyche to be eliminated."

Lita shrugged, already aware of that grim fact. The death of her parents in an airplane crash when she was five years old was the worst trauma of her life, leaving permanent emotional scars that manifested themselves with her crippling fear of flying. Simply going near an airport terrified her. Lita had long since accepted that she was psychologically damaged, perhaps for the rest of her life, but she didn't care. Because her friends, especially Mina whom she loved like a sister were always there to give Lita the strength she needed to survive, and to thrive.

"It's no big deal, Tal. I mean, how often do I get to fly? Except for Scout business," Lita said, lightening the mood. She then felt a deep rumbling in her stomach. "Speaking of business, I'm ready for lunch, guys. Let's hop the subway to the Reading Terminal and check out their food court!"

"Sounds like a good idea to me," said Amy, her appetite aroused. "I wonder what Raye and Serena are doing right now?"

"Well, if they found that comic book store, they've probably got their noses buried in manga even as we speak!" said a grinning Mina.

Peter Duffy, a longtime manga and anime fan, and a clerk at Showcase Comics on South Street gazed in puzzlement at two teenage girls who stood chatting in the manga section of the store. The store's manager, Tom Bowman walked up to Peter who was behind the register.

"Hey, Pete! Something wrong?" he asked.

"I....I'm not sure, Tom. See those two girls over there in the manga section? I'd swear they look familiar," said Peter. "Especially the blonde. She's a dead ringer for Sailor Moon! The long ponytails, the buns, everything!"

Tom shook his head and chuckled. "Sure she does. Last week, you said a brunette came in who looked just like Jennifer Lopez. C'mon, dude! Girls love wearing funky hairstyles. I'll bet she doesn't even know who Sailor Moon is."

Peter grinned embarrassedly. "I guess you're right. Maybe I should pull back on all the comics I read. My imagination's running away with me."

"Don't sweat it, pal. But if a guy walks in here who looks like Vegeta from DBZ, gimme some warning so I can run for the hills!"

Meanwhile, Serena Tsukino, the subject of their conversation frowned as she studied the cover to the latest issue of her famous alter ego who had become extremely popular in America.

When Serena first became Sailor Moon two years ago, leading manga artist Naoko Takeuchi to begin chronicling her adventures from eyewitness accounts in a comic book, she had no idea her fictionalized exploits would garner so much fan interest, both at home and abroad. However, the frown Serena wore at present spoke volumes about how much she disliked what she saw in the Sailor Moon manga.

"I tell you, Raye, I've never liked the way that Naoko woman draws me in her comic book. If I knew where she lived back home, I'd sue the pants off her," she grumbled. "I mean, Jeez! I'm so darn thin, she makes me look like an anorexia victim! And look at the hair! For Pete's sake, if I wore it that long in real life, I'd be tripping over it every ten seconds!"

Raye Hino, picking up a Magic Knight Rayearth trade paperback snorted. "Yeah! Instead of tripping over those two left feet of yours every thirty! But you wanna know what really steams me about this ripoff? Takeuchi makes you appear so gosh darn noble and regal and heroic. What a load of crap! If she only knew what a whining, clumsy and hamfisted coward you really are, she'd freak! The anime on the other hand has your raging stupidity down pat!"

Serena, insulted, gave Raye a fat raspberry. She had little love for the anime version of Sailor Moon either as it made her out to be a bumbling idiot. "Hmph! You're just jealous because I'm the star of the show and you're nothing more than a lousy second stringer! I can read it all over your face, complete with it's green complexion!"

"Me? Jealous of a scatterbrained, food crazed, meatball headed moron like you? HA! Trust me, darling, it'll be a cold day in August before that ever happens! How many books do you have?"

Serena paused to count what she held in her hands. "Eight. You?"

"A dozen. Why so few? I thought you'd be cleaning out this place."

"Well, I wanna swing by Tower Records up the street. I've heard they've got the new Backstreet Boys CD in stock." Serena paused to let out a sigh. "I've gotta have that! Those guys are so-ooooooo cute!"

Raye rolled her eyes and groaned. "You and your two-bit boy bands. Puh-leeze! Give me a tall, handsome, sophisticated----and grown up actor like Brad Pitt any day! Now there's a man's man! Ooooooh! Just thinking about him makes me tingle all over! He really knows how to light my fire!"

"I'm sorry, but Brad's already spoken for, dearie," said Serena. "Besides, even if he hadn't married Jennifer Aniston, what would a megastud like Brad want with a hotheaded kook like you?"

Raye, her face flushed, became indignant and stamped a foot from anger. "I am not hotheaded, Serena!"

Hearing that, Serena laughed. "Yeah! But you sure are a kook! C'mon, let's go. The sooner we hit Tower, the sooner we can eat! I'm starved!"

Raye stewed. It wasn't often that Serena got in the last word.

It took over twenty minutes for Blair Witasick to find a parking spot near South Street since she was loathe to use public transit, even in perpetually traffic congested Center City Philadelphia.

Smoothly pulling her black, BMW 850i coupe into the space, she turned to Sabrina Mangione who was in the passenger seat. Blair smiled at her. "There. That didn't take long, did it?"

Sabrina, popping gum snorted. Patience wasn't one of her strong suits and she had been annoyed with all the wandering around Blair did looking for a place to park. "That depends on your point of view. We could've gotten down here lots faster on the bus."

Blair made a face. "You know how I feel about mass transit, Bree. It's so....lower class."

"Well, thanks a lot, Miss Snooty!"

"Present company excluded of course," said Blair with a sincere grin as she squeezed Sabrina's shoulder. She enjoyed being with the blonde whom she'd known since childhood. "You're my best friend, Bree. That puts you above the maddening crowd. Say, can you feed the meter?"

Sabrina rolled her eyes and muttered a choice profanity in Italian as she rummaged through her purse for quarters. "Don't I always when I ride with you? Keeping loose change isn't a criminal offense you know."

Blair's grin widened as she checked her appearance in the rear view mirror. She nodded from approval. The new Bobbi Brown foundation she bought from Neiman Marcus last week suited her perfectly. "That depends on your point of view, sweetie."

After leaving the car, the two girls turned from Ninth Street onto South. "So, why are we down here anyway? This isn't exactly one of your usual shopping haunts," said Sabrina.

"I'm looking for a book on Eastern magic. Tower might have what I'm looking for. I want to learn all I can about the subject for when we face the enemy," Blair replied. She paused to check her reflection in a storefront window and loved what she saw, sleek and stylish in a low cut, twelve hundred dollar Chanel minidress in forest green that clung to every curve on her body and spike heeled Manolo Blahnik pumps to match.

Hearing that, Sabrina frowned. "Blair, it's been a week since our last meeting when the book told us about that enemy from the east, and we haven't seen squat. Maybe Jean's right. Maybe this threat doesn't exist."

"The only thing Jeannie knows about are barbells and dumbells and all those ridiculous supplements she takes to build up that freakish physique of hers," Blair rumbled. "Besides, it's not like the enemy's going to come knocking at our front door and look for a fight. That would not be....prudent. Look, Bree,

I'm sure they're here, in this city. Sooner or later, we'll meet."

"And what happens when we do, o' wise woman?" Sabrina's voice dripped sarcasm as she spoke those words.

Blair gave her friend a deadly serious look. It startled Sabrina. "Why, destroy them, of course."

As Serena and Raye walked up South Street, entranced by the eclectic stores they saw, Raye stopped in front of a storefront that displayed racy bedroom costumes. She tapped Serena on the shoulder to get her attention.

"Hey, 'Rena. Check this out," Raye said, pointing at a mannequin wearing a sexy, bright red lace negligee and matching, high heeled maribou slippers. "If Darien ever gets up the nerve to marry you--though God only knows why he would---you could wear that on your wedding night! Hubba hubba!"

As Serena stared at the negligee, her face turned red as the outfit from embarrassment. "Over my dead body!"

Raye broke out laughing, getting the result she desired. "Gotcha!"

"Very funny!" grumbled Serena. She took a second look in the storefront and giggled. "Then again, maybe I could make it work. Can you imagine the look on Darien's face if he saw me in that?"

"His face? Girlfriend, he'd have a heart attack!" said Raye. The two friends enjoyed a good laugh as they strolled arm in arm up the block. As they approached Seventh Street, two teenage girls, one blonde, the other a redhead passed them by, suddenly, Raye stiffened and gasped loudly while her eyes bulged. Serena looked at her in concern.

"Raye? What is it? What's wrong?"

Raye, her mouth open, her breath coming in short rasps was speechless for several moments. Her head spinning, her chest tightened from a relentless feeling of cold and terrible dread, Raye leaned on Serena for support as she was close to fainting. She was buffeted by intensely powerful psychic emanations and felt a deadly coldness, a coldness filled with malice. "I....I don't know. I just sensed something. Something....evil. And it was close. I think it passed us by."

Serena looked around her, but saw nothing out of the ordinary among all the pedestrians on the street. "I don't see anything, Raye. Are you sure about what you felt?"

"Dammit, Serena! Of course I'm sure! Do you think I'd make this up?" a furious Raye yelled. Her mood quickly softened when she saw a look of deep hurt in Serena's eyes. "Oh, hell. Mount Hino erupts again. I'm sorry, honey. I shouldn't have yelled at you. It's just that what I felt really spooked me."

"What was it?"

Raye frowned as she struggled to put her thoughts into words. "I'm not sure. It was malevolent, dangerous, and old. Old as us I think."

"Meaning it's only sixteen?"

Raye scowled. "You know what I mean."

"Yeah. I do. Wanna check it out?"

"Huh'? Did I just hear right? You want to investigate?"

"Sure. Why not? Evil never rests, and neither should we. At least that's what Luna keeps telling me."

Raye was astonished. "Good Lord! Don't tell me you're finally becoming responsible!"

Serena put an index finger to her lips and gave Raye a conspiratorial wink. "Kinda. Let's keep this our little secret. C'mon."

The dark haired Shinto priestess smiled. It was times like this when Raye couldn't love Serena enough and was proud to be her best friend. With a giggle, she snapped to attention and gave Serena a salute. "Yes, ma'am! Right behind you, fearless leader!"

Rounding the corner onto Sixth Street, Blair felt as if her worst nightmare had just become reality. The feeling was so powerful she nearly collapsed, causing Sabrina to gasp from worry.

"Blair! What is it? What's wrong! Are you hurt?" Sabrina asked, putting an arm around her friend's shoulders to support her. She knew Blair sometimes suffered from severe migraines and wondered if she were having an attack.

"My God! Bree! I felt it! I felt....them!" cried Blair, her eyes wide from shock. "The enemy the book warned us about! They're here!"

Startled, Sabrina looked behind her, but only saw pedestrians. "What? They are? Where?"

"I don't know. But I felt it most strongly while we were on South Street," said Blair, pinching the bridge of her nose. "We must have just passed them in the last couple of minutes. There were two of them, that much I do know. And they possessed enormous power!"

"Power? Like ours?" a concerned Sabrina asked.

Blair nodded. "Yes. I could feel it. They're close, Bree. Real close." Nervous, Sabrina quickly pulled her cell phone from her purse. "I'll call Sam and Jeannie."

"They won't get here soon enough." Blair, feeling her strength return straightened up. She then closed her eyes and began to concentrate. "We'll have to deal with them ourselves."

"Here? In public?" a stunned Sabrina blurted.

"Yes. The sooner we deal with the enemy, the better. Now concentrate!"

Clearing her mind, Blair closed her eyes and muttered incantations under her breath. She then felt the terrible power from the book slowly flood her system. She could hear dark and entrancing whispers in her head, telling her how to use the sinister force she had been blessed with. It was a feeling that exhilarated her beyond words. She loved to use her power which made feel more than human, almost godlike. For Sabrina, it took more effort for her to summon her power. Apprehension about the book, and the way it was changing her was the reason why.

"I'm ready," Blair announced.

A moment later, Serena and Raye rounded the corner and found themselves face to face with Sabrina and Blair who stared back at them. The expressions they wore were ones of pure malice. Raye, her psychic senses on full alert felt the evil radiating off the two girls like heat waves, and it shook the temple maiden to the very core of her soul. The menace Raye felt was vile and ugly and monstrous, turning her stomach upside down and it took all her strength to keep from throwing up.

"It's them! They're the evil I felt!" she hissed, pointing at the girls.

Blair's eyes narrowed to slits. She felt Raye's spirit in her mind and smiled from what she perceived as the girl's naive concepts of good and evil. That made Blair chuckle. It sounded cruel. "So, you're the enemy we've been waiting for. Didn't think you'd be our age. Or girls for that matter."

Raye's eyes narrowed. "Enemy? We've never seen you before. What are you talking about?"

"What we're talking about, is death. Your death," Blair intoned. The thrill she felt from the power was wonderfully intoxicating. "We're going to kill you where you stand."

"Oh, really? And how are you whack jobs gonna do that?" a sneering Serena wanted to know. Despite what Raye said, the two girls didn't look menacing to her. If anything, they sounded flat out crazy. "Talk us to death?"

"No. Something a little more potent." A blood red nimbus of light suddenly enveloped Blair's head and her pupils disappeared, exposing bright whites. Serena and Raye, their eyes widening, stepped back a few paces.

"What the hell...?" A puzzled Raye wondered aloud.

"Mentus....abberatum....disruptorous!" cried Blair. Before Serena and Raye could blink, their minds suddenly exploded from incredibly searing pain that left the girls writhing on the ground while clutching their heads and screaming from agony.

"Oh, that sounds so wonderful," said a smiling Blair, enjoying the suffering of her adversaries.

Sabrina, on the other hand, didn't like what she was seeing from her friend. "C'mon, Blair. Stop screwing around and finish them off before their yelling draws a crowd."

Blair, looking disappointed because she couldn't play with the enemy nodded. "Oh, all right. You always were a spoilsport." She glared down at the helpless Serena and Raye, paralyzed from the pain in their heads. "Ladies, it's time for you to die."

On a westbound subway train headed for 13th Street and the Reading Terminal, Talia suddenly doubled over in her seat, clutching her head from staggering pain while barely stifling a scream.

"Tal! What's wrong?" asked a concerned Amy, sitting next to her.

Sitting up, Talia's face was locked in a severe grimace from an anguish she couldn't conceal. "It is....Serena. She is under some sort of....intense mental assault," she croaked. "I can....feel the pain she is experiencing through....the telepathic link....I share with her."

"I don't like the sound of that," grumbled Lita. "Mina! Call her!"

With a nod, Mina activated her communicator. "Serena! Come in! It's Mina! Come in!" Nothing.

Scowling, Lita gave it a try. "Raye? Serena? Are you there? Come in! Answer me!" Nothing.

"Shit! Something's wrong! Even when we're on vacation, we can't get away from the bad guys!" growled a disgusted Lita.

"Don't you just hate it when Luna and Artemis are right?" Mina grumbled. She then turned to Talia. "Tal! You gonna be okay?"

Talia, employing mental disciplines learned from her mother on Vulcan a thousand years ago, banished the pain to a far corner of her mind. Taking a deep breath, Talia nodded while feeling a dark fury well up inside her at the thought of Serena being hurt. Her face was once again an iron mask, but her fists repeatedly clenched and unclenched in her lap, a clear sign to the others that she was angry. "I will be. We need to look into this. Immediately."

"I guess that means our alter egos will be needed," said a somber Amy. At the insistence of Luna and Artemis, the girls brought their transformation wands with them. With the exception of Talia, the girls vehemently argued that they wanted to relax and get away from their responsibilities as Sailor Scouts while on their class trip, but the familiars were equally as adamant that the girls be prepared in case the Champions of Love and Justice were needed.

"You got that right, Ames!" said Lita, taking charge. "Like it or not, it's time to go to work! We're getting off at the next stop and head for South Street!"

Sabrina frowned. Just like she feared, passersby had stopped to look in confusion at Serena and Raye writhing on the ground, screaming from agony.

"Blair! C'mon! Do them before a cop shows up!" she shouted to Blair.

"Shut up, Sabrina!" Blair barked back. "This isn't like flicking on a light switch you know! Using magic requires enormous concentration!"

Blair turned back to the helpless Serena and Raye. The smile that spread across her face was filled with boundless cruelty. "One last burst of power and I'll turn their brains into apple sauce."

"Excuse me, ma'am. But would kindly tell me what's going on here?" asked a police officer who walked up to Blair, a wary suspicion on his face.

With Blair's concentration broken, the murderous pressure on the minds of Serena and Raye vanished. Despite being weakened, Raye, realizing she was dealing with a magic user, pulled out a spirit ward and, muttering an incantation, reached up and slapped it on Blair's thigh.

"Spirit of evil, I command you... BEGONE!"

At Raye's command, cold crimson flames erupted from the ward and consumed Blair who screamed horribly. To Sabrina and the cop, all they saw was Blair pawing at flames only she saw as they burned away at the force within her soul. After activating the homing device in her communicator, Raye used the distraction to get to her feet, pull Serena to hers and together, the girls staggered and stumbled down the street.

"God! It felt like my brain was being microwaved!" said a groggy Serena, leaning against a wall as her head was spinning. "What on earth did that crazy chick hit us with?"

"Some sort of spell. A powerful spell," answered Raye, slumping to one knee from weakness. "I've never felt anything like that before!"

Serena was shocked. "You mean she was using magic?"

"Yeah. If that cop hadn't distracted her, she would've killed us," said Raye, returning to her feet. "I've turned on my homer so the others can find us, but this definitely isn't something a couple of high school girls should be messing around with."

Serena nodded, her face set. She removed her brooch from the pocket of her skirt and held it high. "You're right. It's time to call in the professionals!"

For the life of her, Sabrina couldn't understand why Blair was in such terrible distress, or why her skin was smouldering.

"Sabrina! Help me! I'm burning up!" Blair screamed while rolling on the ground. "Get it off! For pity's sake, get it off!"

"Get what off?" the puzzled cop wanted to know.

Sabrina looked over Blair's body and saw the ward on her thigh, glowing from a strange red light. She reached down to grab the ward, only to feel it burn her hand and she screamed from the pain. But with her best friend suffering, Sabrina wouldn't give up. Braving the pain, she clutched the ward with both hands and pulled for all she was worth. Finally, with a titanic effort, Sabrina yanked off the ward and immediately dropped it. Looking down at her hands, Sabrina was shocked to see her fingers had been burned.

"Burned? By a piece of paper? But....how?" she wondered aloud. Pushing aside her questions, Sabrina tended to Blair who lay unmoving on the ground. Her smouldering skin was burned from head to toe by second degree burns, yet her clothing was undamaged. "Blair! Blair! Speak to me! Are you all right?"

Blair slowly opened her eyes and opened her mouth, but nothing came out. The cop, equally as stunned reverted to his training. "Your friend's in shock! I'll call for an ambulance!" he said.

Blair opened her mouth again and whispered words of power memorized from the book. "Restoratum....energitous....vitalae!"

Before the shocked eyes of the cop, Blair's badly burned skin healed itself in a matter of moments while her strength was restored. Sabrina followed suit, healing her burns.

"Good Lord! That's....that's impossible!" said the cop, completely shocked. "How did you do that?"

"I'll never tell!" snarled Blair, placing her hands on both sides of the cop's head. "Mentus....abberatum....disruptorous!"

The cop barely had time to scream before his brain was incinerated from Blair's direct contact with him. He died in a matter of seconds. Blair stared at the now lifeless body with a disturbingly dispassionate expression. She then grinned. That was even more disturbing.

"So that's what it's like to kill. I rather liked it," she said.

Sabrina was appalled. "Jesus, Blair! Did you have to do that?"

The redhead turned to glare menacingly at her friend. "Yes. I did. This jerk, this....man stopped me from killing the enemy. So I wasted him. Got a problem with that?"

"You bet we do, murderer!" came an angry voice from behind Blair. She and Sabrina turned around and found themselves face to face with a scowling Sailor Moon and Sailor Mars. Despite the situation, Blair chuckled.

"Oh, wow! Talk about goofy looking outfits! And who are you twits supposed to be?"

"We're your worst nightmare, sister!" growled Mars, striking a battle pose. "I am Sailor Mars, the Scout of Fire! In the name of the planet Mars, I will burn away your evil!"

"And I am Sailor Moon! The Champion of Love and Justice!" Moon intoned, also striking a pose. She was furious at seeing the cop, who's actions saved her life and Mars' dead on the ground. "You're not going to get away with killing a police officer! In the name of the Moon, I will punish you!"

"Like hell you will, chick!" growled Sabrina. Angry, she began to concentrate, and a dark blue aura surrounded her body. As Sabrina called upon her power, the skies suddenly grew dark.

A crowd of curious onlookers gathered around and murmured as Blair and Sabrina stared down the Scouts. As the crowd increased, vehicle traffic, always slow on the one way thoroughfare ground to a complete halt. Peter Duffy, having stepped out of the store for a smoke break followed the crowd to the corner and gazed in utter shock at seeing the two Sailors.

"Holy crap! I don't believe it!" he whispered, his eyes wide. He then pointed at Moon and shouted: "It's her! It's Sailor Moon! She really exists!"

Several kids in the crowd gasped in awe at Moon and pointed at her.

"Hooray! It's Sailor Moon!" cried one elated kid.

"Maybe those girls are really monsters from the Negaverse!" cried another. "Moondust 'em, Sailor Moon!"

"Yeah! Moondust 'em, Sailor Moon! You're the greatest!" cheered a third. Suddenly, wholesale cheering broke out among the crowd.

Moon, hearing the cheers was stunned. Then she smiled. She never expected that sort of response. "Wow! I have a fan club! Way cool!"

Mars, on the other hand was steaming. And jealous because she went completely ignored by the crowd. "Get what passes for your mind back on business, meatball head! Something's up with that blonde! The power I'm sensing from her is off the scale!"

"You got that right, fashion victim! Let me show you what real power is!" snarled Sabrina, her eyes showing nothing but whites as she pointed at the Scouts. "Cumilous....formulae....ELECTRON!"

A low, deep rumble came from the darkened sky, then, with a monstrous clap of thunder that rattled windows for blocks around, a huge lightning bolt descended, nearly striking Moon and Mars who just managed to dive out of the way. The bolt shook the entire block, leaving a large crater in the street. The crowd, cheering for Moon shrieked from fright and scrambled from blind panic while drivers, unable to move abandoned their cars and fled, adding to the chaos. Moon and Mars, sprawled on the ground near the corner of South Street were stunned as they gazed at Sabrina, her body glowing and crackling from electrical energy.

"Yikes! You weren't kidding, Mars!" Moon cried. "Jupiter would've been envious of that!"

Mars scowled as she climbed to her feet. "Let's see if she can take it as well as dish it out!" The Fire Scout's body glowed a bright red as she pointed her index fingers at the blonde and summoned her power. "Mars Fire....IGNITE!"

At her command, Mars hurled a fireball at Sabrina who calmly held up her right hand.

"Cumulous....Formulae....VORTEXIS!" shouted the blonde, and she unleashed an immensely powerful gust of hurricane force wind that intercepted the fireball.

The collision of the fire and wind blasts resulted in a massive explosion that made buildings shudder, shattered storefront windows and heightened the already considerable panic as pedestrians ran for their lives while the backlash blew both Mars and Sabrina off their feet. As Moon rushed to Mars' side, an angry Blair was already helping a dazed Sabrina to her feet.

"My turn!" growled Blair, pointing a long nailed index finger at the heroines. "Mentus....abberatum....eruptorium!"

Before the Sailors could react, an incredibly powerful blast of mental energy hit them like a runaway freight train, hurtling the Scouts clear across the street. Mars was slammed against the wall of the lingerie store she and Serena had been standing in front of only minutes earlier with bonecrushing force, cracking the back of her skull while Moon went flying through the window, leaving her in a bloody, semi-conscious heap atop the mannequin that wore the red negligee she admired. Blair was extremely pleased with the results.

"Good. Now to finish the job," she said, approaching the helpless heroines.

NEXT: That Old Black Magic

GO TO CHAPTER 2