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Description
Halloween – A Purple Fire-Breather?

October 31.  Halloween.  Bree's least favourite holiday of the year.  A pagan superstition turned into a capitalist moneymaking opportunity.  The past week had gone by quickly and without much notice for Bree.  She had begun training throughout isolated parts of the city, her favourite places being the steepest riverbanks and the university research dump site.  There she tested her magic, and the riverbank was a ready-made obstacle course for her physical abilities.  Her natural abilities as Zephyrus were slowly heightening with her training.  However, her schedule of school, track, training, and searching for Mene were exhausting her body, and she fell into bed every night and almost immediately entered a heavy, deep and dreamless sleep.

She entered the university, aware of the costumes floating around on human bodies, students and staff alike.  However, one costume in particular caught her eye.  It was a girl in a blonde curly wig.  Her costume consisted of a blue shirt with a blue towel tied around her neck, a blue skirt with purple spandex sticking out from underneath, ugly bright blue cowboy boots, and mismatched purple and blue arm-warmers.  The thing that shocked Bree the most was the blue paper butterfly pinned to the middle of the girl's chest.  It was a Sailor Zephyrus costume!

Throughout her day, Bree saw a few more of those costumes, and not just on female bodies.  One thought that occurred to her was that there are just some men who should not wear skirts.  One girl commented on Bree's hair, but asked why she wasn't wearing the rest of the costume.

What amused Bree the most was her sociology professor.  She walked in to see him in a blue shirt, purple pants, and a big old clunky butterfly necklace hanging around his neck.  Considering the guy was in his late sixties, it was quiet the sight to see him imitating students a third his age.

"This is quite an interesting effect.  Take into account the events in the library, and look at all the imitations of the woman who was fighting off the monsters.  I think this would be an excellent time for me to go into imitation and other effects.  People want to be like their heroes," the old man began.  Bree had always been fond of her sociology prof, but his lecture enamored her to him even more.  He put Zephyrus in such a nice light.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two brunettes, a very similar looking man and woman, sat on a bench over looking the main lawn of the campus.  The man's hair was in a short ponytail, while the woman's was longer, and ended in purple tips.  They shared the same eye colour as well, purple.

"Odd human tradition," the man said to his sister.

"Humans are just plain odd, Thyst," the disguised Ame said to her brother, trying to concentrate.  Many of the people were dressed up in costumes as animals, other humans, or something completely unrecognizable to the pair.  What annoyed them the most was the humans dressed up in some way like the annoying warrior they were supposed to destroy.  Ame glared and sneered at these costumed people.  "I mean, how can they emulate that annoying brat?" she said, pointing to a very well done Sailor Zephyrus costume.  She picked up a stone, and was about to whip it when Thyst grabbed her wrist.

"We are just observing, remember?" he scolded his sister.  "You're trying to find the silver starseed and I'm looking for that wind warrior.  Let's not blow our cover or draw any unnecessary attention to ourselves, okay?"

Thyst scanned the area once again.  All of the costumes were an annoyance to him, because he didn't have the power or sensitivity to sense energies like his sister did.  His senses were considerably weaker.  While scanning the courtyard, one particular girl caught his eye.  She didn't seem that obvious, with short black hair, dark skin and a petite frame modestly clothed.  It was the intensity which she was staring, as if reading the souls of Ame and Thyst several metres away.  Thyst looked away for a few seconds, and then glanced back.  Still staring, the girl had shifted her position a little bit.  It was making Thyst more than a little nervous.

"Ame, look at her," he said, nudging his sister and making a motion in the right direction.  Ame's attention locked on the girl, and she held her gaze for a bit before turning to Thyst.

"She's a mere human, but she's making me uncomfortable."

"Let's move," Thyst suggested.  Ame agreed.  As they moved, as nonchalant as possible, the eyes of the black haired girl followed them.  The look was smoldering, and very unnerving to the twins.

A scream soon caught the attention of all three.

"Thyst?" Ame inquired of her brother.  She could feel the energy of the demon from where she was.

"I sent a few out as scouts, that's about it.  Probably found a promising starseed," Thyst shrugged.  He and Ame began to make for the direction of the scream.  Slowly they began losing their human façade, skin darkening and hair becoming a violet shade.

"Hope it's the silver one," Ame mumbled, slinking into the shadows after her brother.

The people running from the bus stops drew Bree's attention before the screams.  She was so sick and tired of the constant attacks.  Didn't these monsters have anything better to do than search and attack innocent people?  Ducking into one of the university's very convenient openings between buildings, she transformed into Sailor Zephyrus and took off towards the bus stop, fighting the flow of the people going the other way.  A few people stopped to give Zephyrus a second look, but she could be any student in a really good costume today.

Nearing the bus stop, she didn't see a monster, or anything out of the ordinary.  Then the crowd shifted near one of the buses, and a small purple shape caught her eye.  "You have got to be kidding," she moaned to herself.

The monster resembled a goblin she had seen in children's books, but bright purple.  It was fairly ugly, with random black hairs sprouting over its body, as well as long, droopy pointed ears.  It wore torn black rags as clothing.  Unlike the other monsters she had fought, she just couldn't take this one seriously.  It didn't really seem menacing, just annoying.

It seemed to see her through the break of people as well, because it took a split second for Zephyrus to realize the thing was flying through the air towards her.  It opened its gaping maw, and shot purple flames, similar to a dragon.  Anyone remaining at the bus stop dove away, along with Zephyrus.  The monster landed where she had been a split second earlier, scorch marks decorating the surrounding cement.

"I can see this is going to be fun," Zephryus grumbled, kneeling to gather her strength.  In one pump of her legs, she landed on top of a bus.  With all the people around before, she had somehow missed the other burnt parts of the area.  So the thing was little, but potentially lethal.  It didn't take long for the little beast to recover either.  Zephyrus leapt as high as she could to avoid the next shot of purple flames.  She landed and rolled behind another bus, but not in time.  Flames singed the bottom of her skort, missing her thigh by millimeters.

Across the bus stop, watching the fight with amusement on the edge of the circle of people were the twins, Ame and Thyst.  The purple haired duo wore identical smirks.

"Interesting scout Thyst," Ame commented.  Her smirk turned into a full smile of amusement, much to her brothers chagrin.  "How come I don't get good ones like that?"

Thyst turned to his sister, no longer amused.  "It's effective, isn't it?  Giving that annoying sailor warrior a run for her money."

Sailor Zephyrus was finally able to move fast enough as to get behind the goblin.  Hoping for just some water, instead of the effect her attack usually got, she shouted, "Razor Rain!"

A torrent was let loose from her hand, soaking the purple goblin in seconds.  At first the monster just seemed mad.  It inhaled, preparing an even larger attack.  It opened its mouth, but all that billowed out was a few wisps of smoke.  Enraged, it leapt at Zephyrus, claws extended.

"Yeah, run for her money," Ame giggled.  It was then that Zephyrus noticed the two.  She looked straight at the two and smiled.

"Alright you," she muttered to the goblin.  It was inches for her face when she grabbed it around the arms.  The moves allowed the monster to claw through her gloves and do some intensive damages to her forearms underneath.  Doing her best to ignore the pain, Zephyrus spun around, whipping the goblin in a circle.  Although it had been a few years since she had competed in field events, her aim was still pretty good.  Letting the goblin go at just the right moment, the momentum shot the monster towards the purple haired twins.  Not missing a beat, she continued her spin, gathering a little more momentum and energy.

"GALE FORCE!"

The wind she unleashed was like a shot from an air cannon, and the goblin was the missile.  Ame and Thyst couldn't move out of the way quick enough to avoid the monster.  In the last second, Ame grabbed her brother's arm and teleported them both back to Garon's hideout.

The goblin continued its flight headlong into the side of the students building.  It splattered like a bug on a windshield on the stone wall.  Zephyrus was glad she wouldn't have to clean up that purple goo later.

A cheer went up from the crowd of students and professors circling the bus stop.  Zephyrus looked around.  Well, this is going to help with keeping a low profile, she thought to herself, also wondering why people just didn't do the smart thing and get out of sight of crazy fire breathing goblin monsters.  Gracefully, she back flipped over the small storage shed set beside the bus stop, quickly transforming back into plain Bree as soon as she landed.  Unfortunately, the cuts on her forearms didn't disappear.  However, Bree was amazed to notice that the bleeding had stopped immediately.  Scabs were starting to form already.

"Maybe there are some pretty good things about being a sailor warrior," she said to herself, walking out among the amazed individuals still crowding around the bus stop.  Stunned individuals were still milling around, although some people were starting to filter back to where they were supposed to be or had been going.

Bree had almost made it off campus when Steph caught up with her.  Her peppy roommate didn't seem perturbed by what had just happened on campus.

"Hey Bree.  Did you see what just happened at the bus stop?" Steph inquired.  Bree gave the girl a look.  She appeared way too happy in the wake of battle and destruction.  A thought crossed Bree's mind that maybe Steph would make a good sailor warrior.

"No.  Didn't see, although I figured there must have been some kind of commotion.  I was studying in the history department," Bree lied, heading in the direction of their apartment building.  She had come to dislike the walk in the past couple of weeks.  Must be something to do with the events that seemed to take place a majority of times she tried to go home.

I just want some quiet so I can get back to normal school life, Bree thought.  She walked silently beside Steph, contemplating the current situation of her life.  She just wanted to find Mene's host as quickly as possible, and go back to school and track.

In the mists of a warped dimension, the twins relaxed in their room.  Ame kept shooting her brother glares.  The close call earlier had been mostly his fault.

"Are you ever going to get rid of Sailor Zephyrus, because she seems to be foiling both our attempts," Ame complained.  She was doing her job, so why couldn't her brother complete his one simple task.  "She was right there, yet you didn't attack her!"

"You were there too Ame," Thyst answered, reclining on his chair.  "I didn't see you jumping in to finish her off when the scout had her on her toes."

"It's not my job."

"Well, you don't seem to be doing your job very well either.  Still no trace of the silver starseed?  You and your monsters have attacked dozens of girls, looked at bunches of starseeds, and still nothing."

"At least I don't have some sort of sick obsession with my target.  It's not a game to me Thyst," Ame glowered.  "If I didn't have another focus, I would go out right now and destroy every human in the area whose starseed even had a glimmer of potential energy.  Maybe that way I could get both our jobs done."

Thyst didn't answer.  He kept replaying the earlier fight in his mind.  He couldn't articulate it, but he had felt concerned for Sailor Zephyrus.  It was completely against his nature, his mission, and his loyalty.  She was the enemy.  He couldn't feel anything towards her but malice.

Description
Halloween – A Purple Fire-Breather?

October 31.  Halloween.  Bree's least favourite holiday of the year.  A pagan superstition turned into a capitalist moneymaking opportunity.  The past week had gone by quickly and without much notice for Bree.  She had begun training throughout isolated parts of the city, her favourite places being the steepest riverbanks and the university research dump site.  There she tested her magic, and the riverbank was a ready-made obstacle course for her physical abilities.  Her natural abilities as Zephyrus were slowly heightening with her training.  However, her schedule of school, track, training, and searching for Mene were exhausting her body, and she fell into bed every night and almost immediately entered a heavy, deep and dreamless sleep.

She entered the university, aware of the costumes floating around on human bodies, students and staff alike.  However, one costume in particular caught her eye.  It was a girl in a blonde curly wig.  Her costume consisted of a blue shirt with a blue towel tied around her neck, a blue skirt with purple spandex sticking out from underneath, ugly bright blue cowboy boots, and mismatched purple and blue arm-warmers.  The thing that shocked Bree the most was the blue paper butterfly pinned to the middle of the girl's chest.  It was a Sailor Zephyrus costume!

Throughout her day, Bree saw a few more of those costumes, and not just on female bodies.  One thought that occurred to her was that there are just some men who should not wear skirts.  One girl commented on Bree's hair, but asked why she wasn't wearing the rest of the costume.

What amused Bree the most was her sociology professor.  She walked in to see him in a blue shirt, purple pants, and a big old clunky butterfly necklace hanging around his neck.  Considering the guy was in his late sixties, it was quiet the sight to see him imitating students a third his age.

"This is quite an interesting effect.  Take into account the events in the library, and look at all the imitations of the woman who was fighting off the monsters.  I think this would be an excellent time for me to go into imitation and other effects.  People want to be like their heroes," the old man began.  Bree had always been fond of her sociology prof, but his lecture enamored her to him even more.  He put Zephyrus in such a nice light.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two brunettes, a very similar looking man and woman, sat on a bench over looking the main lawn of the campus.  The man's hair was in a short ponytail, while the woman's was longer, and ended in purple tips.  They shared the same eye colour as well, purple.

"Odd human tradition," the man said to his sister.

"Humans are just plain odd, Thyst," the disguised Ame said to her brother, trying to concentrate.  Many of the people were dressed up in costumes as animals, other humans, or something completely unrecognizable to the pair.  What annoyed them the most was the humans dressed up in some way like the annoying warrior they were supposed to destroy.  Ame glared and sneered at these costumed people.  "I mean, how can they emulate that annoying brat?" she said, pointing to a very well done Sailor Zephyrus costume.  She picked up a stone, and was about to whip it when Thyst grabbed her wrist.

"We are just observing, remember?" he scolded his sister.  "You're trying to find the silver starseed and I'm looking for that wind warrior.  Let's not blow our cover or draw any unnecessary attention to ourselves, okay?"

Thyst scanned the area once again.  All of the costumes were an annoyance to him, because he didn't have the power or sensitivity to sense energies like his sister did.  His senses were considerably weaker.  While scanning the courtyard, one particular girl caught his eye.  She didn't seem that obvious, with short black hair, dark skin and a petite frame modestly clothed.  It was the intensity which she was staring, as if reading the souls of Ame and Thyst several metres away.  Thyst looked away for a few seconds, and then glanced back.  Still staring, the girl had shifted her position a little bit.  It was making Thyst more than a little nervous.

"Ame, look at her," he said, nudging his sister and making a motion in the right direction.  Ame's attention locked on the girl, and she held her gaze for a bit before turning to Thyst.

"She's a mere human, but she's making me uncomfortable."

"Let's move," Thyst suggested.  Ame agreed.  As they moved, as nonchalant as possible, the eyes of the black haired girl followed them.  The look was smoldering, and very unnerving to the twins.

A scream soon caught the attention of all three.

"Thyst?" Ame inquired of her brother.  She could feel the energy of the demon from where she was.

"I sent a few out as scouts, that's about it.  Probably found a promising starseed," Thyst shrugged.  He and Ame began to make for the direction of the scream.  Slowly they began losing their human façade, skin darkening and hair becoming a violet shade.

"Hope it's the silver one," Ame mumbled, slinking into the shadows after her brother.

The people running from the bus stops drew Bree's attention before the screams.  She was so sick and tired of the constant attacks.  Didn't these monsters have anything better to do than search and attack innocent people?  Ducking into one of the university's very convenient openings between buildings, she transformed into Sailor Zephyrus and took off towards the bus stop, fighting the flow of the people going the other way.  A few people stopped to give Zephyrus a second look, but she could be any student in a really good costume today.

Nearing the bus stop, she didn't see a monster, or anything out of the ordinary.  Then the crowd shifted near one of the buses, and a small purple shape caught her eye.  "You have got to be kidding," she moaned to herself.

The monster resembled a goblin she had seen in children's books, but bright purple.  It was fairly ugly, with random black hairs sprouting over its body, as well as long, droopy pointed ears.  It wore torn black rags as clothing.  Unlike the other monsters she had fought, she just couldn't take this one seriously.  It didn't really seem menacing, just annoying.

It seemed to see her through the break of people as well, because it took a split second for Zephyrus to realize the thing was flying through the air towards her.  It opened its gaping maw, and shot purple flames, similar to a dragon.  Anyone remaining at the bus stop dove away, along with Zephyrus.  The monster landed where she had been a split second earlier, scorch marks decorating the surrounding cement.

"I can see this is going to be fun," Zephryus grumbled, kneeling to gather her strength.  In one pump of her legs, she landed on top of a bus.  With all the people around before, she had somehow missed the other burnt parts of the area.  So the thing was little, but potentially lethal.  It didn't take long for the little beast to recover either.  Zephyrus leapt as high as she could to avoid the next shot of purple flames.  She landed and rolled behind another bus, but not in time.  Flames singed the bottom of her skort, missing her thigh by millimeters.

Across the bus stop, watching the fight with amusement on the edge of the circle of people were the twins, Ame and Thyst.  The purple haired duo wore identical smirks.

"Interesting scout Thyst," Ame commented.  Her smirk turned into a full smile of amusement, much to her brothers chagrin.  "How come I don't get good ones like that?"

Thyst turned to his sister, no longer amused.  "It's effective, isn't it?  Giving that annoying sailor warrior a run for her money."

Sailor Zephyrus was finally able to move fast enough as to get behind the goblin.  Hoping for just some water, instead of the effect her attack usually got, she shouted, "Razor Rain!"

A torrent was let loose from her hand, soaking the purple goblin in seconds.  At first the monster just seemed mad.  It inhaled, preparing an even larger attack.  It opened its mouth, but all that billowed out was a few wisps of smoke.  Enraged, it leapt at Zephyrus, claws extended.

"Yeah, run for her money," Ame giggled.  It was then that Zephyrus noticed the two.  She looked straight at the two and smiled.

"Alright you," she muttered to the goblin.  It was inches for her face when she grabbed it around the arms.  The moves allowed the monster to claw through her gloves and do some intensive damages to her forearms underneath.  Doing her best to ignore the pain, Zephyrus spun around, whipping the goblin in a circle.  Although it had been a few years since she had competed in field events, her aim was still pretty good.  Letting the goblin go at just the right moment, the momentum shot the monster towards the purple haired twins.  Not missing a beat, she continued her spin, gathering a little more momentum and energy.

"GALE FORCE!"

The wind she unleashed was like a shot from an air cannon, and the goblin was the missile.  Ame and Thyst couldn't move out of the way quick enough to avoid the monster.  In the last second, Ame grabbed her brother's arm and teleported them both back to Garon's hideout.

The goblin continued its flight headlong into the side of the students building.  It splattered like a bug on a windshield on the stone wall.  Zephyrus was glad she wouldn't have to clean up that purple goo later.

A cheer went up from the crowd of students and professors circling the bus stop.  Zephyrus looked around.  Well, this is going to help with keeping a low profile, she thought to herself, also wondering why people just didn't do the smart thing and get out of sight of crazy fire breathing goblin monsters.  Gracefully, she back flipped over the small storage shed set beside the bus stop, quickly transforming back into plain Bree as soon as she landed.  Unfortunately, the cuts on her forearms didn't disappear.  However, Bree was amazed to notice that the bleeding had stopped immediately.  Scabs were starting to form already.

"Maybe there are some pretty good things about being a sailor warrior," she said to herself, walking out among the amazed individuals still crowding around the bus stop.  Stunned individuals were still milling around, although some people were starting to filter back to where they were supposed to be or had been going.

Bree had almost made it off campus when Steph caught up with her.  Her peppy roommate didn't seem perturbed by what had just happened on campus.

"Hey Bree.  Did you see what just happened at the bus stop?" Steph inquired.  Bree gave the girl a look.  She appeared way too happy in the wake of battle and destruction.  A thought crossed Bree's mind that maybe Steph would make a good sailor warrior.

"No.  Didn't see, although I figured there must have been some kind of commotion.  I was studying in the history department," Bree lied, heading in the direction of their apartment building.  She had come to dislike the walk in the past couple of weeks.  Must be something to do with the events that seemed to take place a majority of times she tried to go home.

I just want some quiet so I can get back to normal school life, Bree thought.  She walked silently beside Steph, contemplating the current situation of her life.  She just wanted to find Mene's host as quickly as possible, and go back to school and track.

In the mists of a warped dimension, the twins relaxed in their room.  Ame kept shooting her brother glares.  The close call earlier had been mostly his fault.

"Are you ever going to get rid of Sailor Zephyrus, because she seems to be foiling both our attempts," Ame complained.  She was doing her job, so why couldn't her brother complete his one simple task.  "She was right there, yet you didn't attack her!"

"You were there too Ame," Thyst answered, reclining on his chair.  "I didn't see you jumping in to finish her off when the scout had her on her toes."

"It's not my job."

"Well, you don't seem to be doing your job very well either.  Still no trace of the silver starseed?  You and your monsters have attacked dozens of girls, looked at bunches of starseeds, and still nothing."

"At least I don't have some sort of sick obsession with my target.  It's not a game to me Thyst," Ame glowered.  "If I didn't have another focus, I would go out right now and destroy every human in the area whose starseed even had a glimmer of potential energy.  Maybe that way I could get both our jobs done."

Thyst didn't answer.  He kept replaying the earlier fight in his mind.  He couldn't articulate it, but he had felt concerned for Sailor Zephyrus.  It was completely against his nature, his mission, and his loyalty.  She was the enemy.  He couldn't feel anything towards her but malice.