Reiji walked down the street, humming to herself.  She had just come off of a boat from Mystery Island, and was glad to get away from the crowded people, but not so relieved to know that she'd be spending some time with her six crazy cousins and their two roommates.  She sighed, walking past a TV where a show about the Sailor Neopets was being broadcast.  It was actually a live play, and she snorted as she continued walking.  She saw nothing wrong with the senshi, though; she was thankful they were there.  Someone had to protect Neopia - faeries are usually very busy, she presumed.

She knocked on the door of her grandmother's mansion.  Her granny wasn't very famous, but somewhat well known for being a helper around Neopia.  Reiji ran her fingers through her dark red-almost brown hair, tapping her foot, waiting for the door.  She tapped the hilts of her two katanas to make sure they were there.

At last the door opened: a tall slightly muscluar brunnete male, who looked completely lost and had a dazy look in his large green eyes, was looking down at Reiji.  "We've been expecting you," he said, pickingher up in a large bear hug.  Reiji growled, and tugged on his long single braid so that he owwed and put her down.

The feisty red-brown haired girl brushed herself off.  "Is granny in?"

"No, she went shopping with Takao.  There was a sale last week, and she insists that the best things are out now."  He sighed, looking up at the sky.  "She assumed that because there was an attack at the same shop she's going to, the best stuff will still be there."  He nodded, playfully punching her in her arm.  "Those senshi sure are somethin' huh?"

Reiji growled again, grabbing his hand.  "If you know what's good for you, you won't touch me again."  She grinned evily and walked past him, putting down her single bag on the couch next to four sleeping aishas: a cloud one, a pirate one, a faerie one, and a baby one.  "Hey Tory, is there anything in the kitchen?"

"No ma'm," Tory replied as he walked back inside and closed the door.

Reiji picked up the remote and started flipping channels.  "You should go make something to eat then. Make yourself useful."

"I can't.  I'm not allowed in the kitchen.  Besides," Tory plopped next to Reiji ,"I get TV at 4 so I can watch Ride of The Unis."

"Have the television, I'm leaving in a few seconds."

"Aw, you should stay," said the baby aisha as he woke up.

"Whatever," Reiji shrugged, crossing her arms, listening and trying to ignore Tory's babbling.

She shook her head, closing her eyes.  She hadn't been sleepy until he started talking; some people can do that type of thing to you.  She didn't want to go to sleep, because she wanted to go and check that new movie, but she ignored the thought because her eyelids were sealed shut and she didn't feel like trying to pry them open.  She drifted into sleep.

Dr. F. Sloth emptied a file cabinet by picking it up and dumping it onto the floor.  The Space Station was overdue for a good cleaning, and he was in a bad mood, so he went attended the job quickly.

"Evil worm dudeeeee..." echoed Sailor Chia's voice.

Sloth turned slowly to see his sailor minion standing in the doorway.  "Can't you see I'm busy?"

"Yeah, but I always bother you when you're busy," Sailor Chia responded, picking around in the spilled papers on the ground.

"If you want something to do, here."  Sloth slammed a paper into her arms.  "It was a long ago assignment - find out the weaknesses of the Sailor Neopets - but maybe you could--"

"All right, evil worm dude," Sailor Chia interrupted.  "I got this all figured out."

"You only have one weakness listed.  Use it to track down that sailor," Sloth finished, picking up the rest of the papers.

"Sure," Sailor Chia replied and walked out.

Reiji woke up hours later, and yawned and stretched.  She glanced around, and looked outside to see it was still the atfernoon.  Getting up, she checked herself in a mirror quickly before walking out again.  She walked down the streets of Neopia Central, waving to the happy and not so happy neopians.

Reiji stopped as she almost stepped on a sleeping kacheek.  She arched an eyebrow at it, but passed any thought of asking it to go back to her house.  It could have been a stray, or maybe just a sleeping neopet.  She didn't know.  She jumped over it walked into the Chocolate Factory, and bought a lot of every chocolate there, which draining her NP considerably..

Reiji arrived at her house again, and put down the chocolate items.  "Anyone here?"  She walked around the mansion, seeing no one, but shrugged it off: "Probably outside or something."

She laughed as she walked outside, admiring the beautiful gardening work: the bushes were trimmed perfectly, and the lake shone with elegance.  She walked down the cement path to a oriental designed temple.  She peeked inside to see no one, and glanced around to see no one.  "Where is everyone?" she asked out loud, walking back inside the house.

This time as she entered the kitchen she noticed a note sitting on the counter.  She picked it up quickly, and read it to herself.  "They went to Mystery Island. Why?"  Reading a bit further, she sighed.  "They went to Mystery Island to get me.  Even though I told them that I'd be coming in today..."

Reiji sighed again as she crumpled the note in her hand and threw it into a trash can. "Well, Tory and Ryu should be around here somewhere."

As if answering her call, the two bounded down the stairs.  Ryu, the short but growing 8 year old, grinned at Reiji, holding in a laugh at his missing two front teeth. They hadn't been supposed to come out yet, but he'd fallen off his skateboard and knocked them out.  "Reiji, you came."

Reiji opened her arms and Ryu instantly jumped into them.  They shared what would have been the perfect mother-son relationship if only Reiji had been his mother; as it was, she just treated him like he was her son.  She patted his black and white spiky hair.  "I'll stay for a while. I still have some more shopping to do."

"Why do you keep going shopping?" Tory asked, scratching his head.

"There's nothing in the kitchen," Reiji remarked dryly.  "You told me so."

"Yeah well, didn't mean it was true.  There's nothing in the kitchen that I want to eat," Tory corrected himself.

"Loser," Reiji muttered, sitting on the couch.

"So, what did you do in Mystery Island?"  Ryu arched a brow, his arms still wrapped around Reiji's waist.

"Same same.  I talked with Ryshuu, and I helped out at the cooking pot.  I surfed, and fell a lot."  She patted his head again.  "And you?"

"I've been trying to stay away from Tory.  He kept trying to put in some fake teeth."  Ryu shook his head.  "It's creepy."

Aruzezu, the cloud aisha, walked down the stairs.  "You guys, I'm hungry."

Reiji pushed Tory off the couch.  "Go feed the pets."

Tory looked at her in shock.  "All of them?! Why me?"

The brunette girl growled, clenching her fist.  "Just do it."

"Okay," Tory sighed, walking up the stairs with Aruzezu obidently following him.

Reiji looked down at her little cousin.  "Ryu, let's buy you something."

"Sure," Ryu replied, already at the door.  "We can go get some battledome items from that shop."

Reiji nodded, following him outside.  They were on their way to the battledome shop when they passed the candy shop.  A Sailor Neopet was sitting on the roof, but what caught Reiji's eye was the female track star, Brooke, eating a baby bottle pop and reading a magazine.

She didn't think too much of it, but knew Ryu loved candy, so she went in, holding his hand.  "Okay Ryu, you can get anything you want."

Ryu's eyes went huge in excitement.  "Really?!" he asked, licked his lips, thinking of all the goodies he'd fill his stomach with.  He rushed over to the counter and stared over all the delicious things, not once looking at the prices.

Reiji walked over to Brooke, who didn't glance up from her magazine.  Was Reiji offended?  Of course not.  She just assumed Brooke was really into that magazine.  So, being who she was...Reiji picked up the magazine, and examined it.  "Neo Fashion, eh? My favorite models in here are the nimmos.  Lovely creatures."

"Yeah, I know who owns those nimmos," Brooke nodded.

"Is she selling them?"  Reiji laughed a bit.  "I was joking.  I'm not a fan of nimmos."

"I prefer usuls," Brooke remarked.

"They are cute, aren't they?"  Reiji arched a brow, putting the magazine down.

"Yeah.  The cutest."  Brooke smiled, extending her hand.  "My name's Brooke."

"You're kidding?  You mean, Brooke, the fastest girl at elementary?  It's been so long," Reiji responded in a bit of happiness and astonishment.

"Reiji?"  Brooke's motuh gaped open in a childish expression.  "It has been long!  Where have you been?  You still live in Neopia Central?"

"No no, I live in Mystery Island.  I'm just visiting."  Reiji sat down next to Brooke.

"Oh okay."  Brooke nodded, understandingly.  "Who are you visiting?"

"My cousins," Reiji replied, watching Ryu who was talking to a bunch of other eight-year-old boys.

"Oh."  Brooke started looking at the magazine again.

"It's getting late, the place is about to close...and it's almost his bed time."  Reiji slowly stood up and smiled at Brooke.  "Nice talking to you."

"You too."  Brooke stood up also, throwing away the empty baby bottle pop.  She rolled up the magazine and put it in her pocket, then waved as she walked out - but stopped short when she heard the familiar face of an old (well, not old, but common) foe: "I knew I'd find you at the Candy Shop."

Brooke looked around, seeing no good spots to transform.  So she did the one thing she did best: ran.  Knowing that she had to lead Sailor Chia out of the populated area, she didn't run at her top speed, allowing Chia to keep up.

"Stop running and fight!" Sailor Chia shouted, running as fast as she could after Brooke the track star.

Reiji saw the beginning of the chase unfold.  "Why's she chasing Brooke?" she thought to herself.  Glancing over at Ryu, she noticed that he'd gotten into a game of jacks with some pets, with their owners keeping a watchful eye on them.  She quickly asked one of them to watch Ryu for a moment, then patted his head before leaving to sprint after Chia, thinking to herself: I know I saw her on the TV . . .

Sailor Chia looked behind her to see that Reiji, who was in far better shape, was keeping up with her easily.  "Why are you following me?!"

"Because you're chasing my friend!" Reiji snapped back, picking up speed.

Sailor Chia growled, and picked up speed also, still getting no closer to Brooke.

"Reiji?"  Brooke asked over her shoulder, jumping over a rock.

"Yeah it's me," Reiji answered with a smirk.  "Why's she chasing you? Isn't she a Sailor Neopet?"

"Yes, but not the good kind," Brooke explained, stopping in a very deserted street of Neopia.

Sailor Chia didn't waste any time, even though she was tired, she was glad that girl stopped running. She prepared her attack. "Chia Giggle!"

Two things happened at once: Brooke transformed into Sailor Usul, and Reiji tossed one of her katanas to deflect the attack.

When the orange beams hit the sword, they were reflected in all directions; not only did Usul not get hurt (luckily), the beams spread out and hit many other parts of the street.

Sailor Chia looked at Reiji.  "Time to get rid of you! Chia Giggle!"

Reiji swiped out another katana and held it out against her.  This time the beams didn't reflect, but broke the sword in half and she recieved damage from the blow.  She gritted her teeth, falling to one knee.

Sailor Chia chuckled, "To finish this...Chia Chaos..."

Reiji growled, placing her hands on the broken piece with the hilt.  Then she gasped as she realized it wasn't her sword: she was looking at a silver and gold cup.  She tilted it to its side and out dropped a brown and yellow pen. As she was examining it for a quick second and Brooke's voice snapped her into reality. "Reiji, you're a sailor!"

"You're kidding," Reiji replied, in a state of disbelief.  "What do I do?"

"...Ruin!"

"Usul Scratch!"

The attacks collided, but Chia's was far stronger, throwing Usul back as Reiji stood up. "What do I-" she began, but before she could continue, five words rang in her head.  She held up her pen and shouted them: "Grarrl Neo Power, Make Up!"

She jumped alongside the slightly bruised Usul and helped her up.  "Okay, here's what we do," said the new Sailor Grarrl.  She fiddled with the yellow part of her skirt.  "I could have asked for better coloring, but eh well."  Looking up at Usul again, she finished: "You attack, and I'll combine mine into it. Okay?"

Usul nodded, running over to Chia. "Usul Scratch!"

"Chia Giggle!"

"Grarrl Fire Blast!"  The words flowed out of Reiji's mouth easily.

The combined attacks were enough; Chia's outfit was set in flames, and fortunately for the sailors she was already tired from running.  Though she beat the flames out as quickly as possible, she was left singed and weary.

Grarrl and Usul stood back to back as Chia pressed the buttons that would teleport her away.  "I'll be back when I have more energy..."  She stepped back and vanished.

Grarrl grinned, turning back into Reiji.  "Man...that was fun," she smiled faintly.  "You should come to my house to celebrate."

"Okay, why not?" Usul shrugged, returning to Brooke.  "Sounds like it'll be a blast."

"Yeah it will," Reiji assured her.

Brooke, Leslie, Reiji and Kami sat on the couch, watching the Ride of the Unis movie, with Tory reciting all the dramatic parts.

"Is this all Tory watches?" Brooke whispered to Reiji, who nodded.

"Yes, and Brooke?"  Leslie looked at her friend.

"What is it, Leslie?"  Brooke asked, licking a baby bottle pop.

"You're banned from the candy shop," Leslie began.

She wasn't able to finish as Brooke shouted, "WHAT?!"  The shout shook the house and knocked over a lamp and everyone turned to Brooke.  "What do you mean I can go to the store?!  Then how am I going to get baby bottle pops?"  She leapt up and began walking back and forth, ignoring the words of explaination from the others ("You'll be targeted there again, it's dangerous . . .").

"Well uh-" Reiji looked at the others.

"Maybe we should just...let it go?"  Ryu asked, poking a baby bottle pop.

Brooke quickly snatched it up and hissed through her teeth, "Miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine..."

"Brooke, you'll still get that baby bottle pop goodness you like, someone will just get it for you." Leslie asssured her.  Brooke stopped her tirade and looked markedly happier.

"Well then what are you waiting for? Gooooooooo!" she exclaimed suddenly, grabbing people by the shoulders and shoving them towards the door.

"Now?" Kami asked frantically as she and the others were pushed outside by Brooke and the door slammed behind them.