The world was flying by at what seemed like light speed. Well Natalie could only assume it was the world, she really had no idea what was happening or what any of this was. Before she knew it, another portal opened and she had fallen hard. What the heck had just happened to her? Natalie stood up, rubbing her aching rear end and looked around. It was dark and empty; she could barely see a thing.
Just then, she heard footsteps coming in her direction. At least it sounded like they were coming at her; it was hard to tell exactly with the echo. Then a small light came into view.
“This is bad, I gotta hide,” Natalie thought to herself as she turned to head away from the light. She tried to find a door, a break in the wall, anywhere to hide but there was nothing. She was trapped. The footsteps came closer and closer and now Natalie could slightly make out the person holding the light. It looked like a little kid holding a toy. This might not be so bad after all.
“Sailor Pluto? Is that you? Why are you on this side of the door?” asked the child as she approached. The closer she got, the more Natalie could see. This kid looked familiar, but why? Then she saw the rabbit ear like buns in the girl’s hair. She only knew of one person that had hair like that, Rini. Was she still at the convention after all? No, that wasn’t possible. Natalie knew she had fallen through the portal; there was no way this place was in the convention center.
“Pluto?” the little girl said again. Natalie had to say something but what? Oh that’s right, there was something that Sailor Pluto had always called Rini…
“Yes Small Lady?” she said bowing her head a bit.
“You sound funny… and why are you here? Why aren’t you at the gate like always? I thought you couldn’t leave…”
Natalie knew she was in a tight spot already. Her costume had been good enough to make even Rini think she was the real thing but the moment she spoke she knew she had blown it. Should she say anything else? What would happen if she didn’t? Her mind was blank, she couldn’t respond… then a door opened at the end of the hall. The real Sailor Pluto had heard Rini and Natalie.
Rini looked from Natalie to the real Pluto and then back to Natalie. “You’re a fake!!!! Help!!! There’s an imposter Pluto in the castle!!!!!!”
Natalie panicked. She ran past Rini up the hallway. She had no idea where she was going but it had to be better than here. Natalie didn’t get far before she ran head long into someone else.
“Hold it right there!” came a woman’s voice as she grabbed a hold of Natalie. “Who are you? How did you get in here?”
Natalie’s eyes went wide. She felt as if she wanted to cry but she was too scared to do anything.
“Answer me…” her captor pressed.
She wanted to answer but she couldn’t find the words. She didn’t even know the answer herself but even she did have the answer there’s no way the words would have come out. Natalie knew she had to at least try. If this was who she thought it was, she’d definitely be in trouble if didn’t.
“I… um… I…” she stuttered. This just wasn’t going to happen.
At that point, someone else came up behind Natalie’s captor. “Venus, go easy…” came the lightly husky voice of Sailor Jupiter as she placed her hand on Venus’ shoulder. It didn’t take long for Jupiter to see the look of panic written all over Natalie’s face. This girl was far too frightened and confused to be any threat to them and Jupiter could tell. “Let’s take her to the Queen and see what she has to say.”
“But Jupiter, she’s an intruder and doesn’t belong here. She’s even trying to impersonate Sailor Pluto!”
Jupiter nodded, “I know but we’re not going to get answers from her by scaring her to death.”
Rini had come up behind Natalie by now and stood there smiling at Venus and Jupiter, happy to see they had caught the imposter. Jupiter motioned for her to come over. “Rini, can you head back upstairs and tell the Queen what’s happened? Let her know that we’re bringing the intruder up to the main hall to get a judgment?”
Nodding happily, Rini chimed, “Sure Jupiter!” She then ran off up the hallway and out of site.
“Now, are you sure you have nothing to say before we take you upstairs imposter?” Venus asked her voice just as harsh as it had been before. Natalie shook her head. There was no way she was going to be able to anything.
Venus made a bit of a disappointed face and shrugged. “Fine… off we go…”
Jupiter and Venus took one arm each and escorted Natalie out of the bowels of the castle. She didn’t resist at all. She recognized this place now… where she was, who she was with. She had no idea how she had gotten here but she was in the palace of Crystal Tokyo.
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