"Here!  Pass it here!" Daphne called to Dani.  Dani passed her the soccer ball, which Daphne then passed on to Sara.  Sara kicked it in the general direction of the goal, and it went in, past Lilia, who was the goalie.
 "Hey, good job, Sara," Dani said.
 "Thanks," Sara, who was still staring at the ball, said.  "Wow, it actually went in for once."
 "Okay, let’s do that again," Daphne said.  She ran to the center of the field with the ball.  "I get to start, okay?"
 "Fine with me," Dani replied.
 "Cool," Daphne said.  She started the game back up again by dribbling the soccer ball down the field.  But when she was halfway down the field, Kaylie, who was on the other team, stole it and took off in the opposite direction.  "Oh, shoot!" Daphne muttered.
 "Get her, get her!" Dani encouraged the others.
Lilia reluctantly ran up to Kaylie and stole the ball back, then passed it to Sara. Sara continued where Daphne had left off, and was about to kick it in when she tripped over the ball.  "Ow!" she cried, falling to the ground.  "How’d that happen?"
"Are you okay, Sara?" Daphne asked.
Sara nodded.  "I’m fine."
Lilia looked up at the sky, which was darkening rapidly.  "We’d better continue this game tomorrow, it’s getting late."
"Okay," Kaylie said.  "Besides, it’s almost time for Dragonball Z, which I don’t want to miss.  See you guys tomorrow!"
"Yeah, same bat time, same bat channel!" Lilia said, waving to Kaylie as she headed back to the locker room to get changed.
"Okay, guys," Dani said, "I’d better go too.  Homework to do, and that kind of thing."
"Wait a minute," a voice said, sounding like it was coming from the sky.  "You’re not going anywhere."
"Huh?" Sara looked instinctively up towards the sky.  There she saw a woman in a golden dress, floating above them.  "Hey, it’s one of those evil ladies."
"Good observation," the woman laughed.  She floated down and landed on the ground, about ten feet away from where Lilia, Dani, Sara, and Daphne were standing.
"Astatine," Lilia whispered to Dani, Sara, and Daphne.  "One of the Periodics.  The lady that attacked at choir, remember her?"
"Yeah," Dani whispered back.  She stood up and glared at Astatine.  "Excuse me, psycho floating lady, what do you want?"
"Oh, so you don’t remember me?" Astatine asked.
"Why would I?" Dani asked, pretending ignorance.  "I don’t even know you."
"But she does," Astatine said, pointing to Lilia.
"What’re you talking about?" Lilia demanded.  "I’ve never met you before in my entire life!"
"I don’t believe you," Astatine said, "so don’t try to play dumb with me, Sailor Vega."
Lilia was floored.  "How…did you know that?"
"You were one of the little girls in the choir that Xenos and I attacked," Astatine explained.  "I saw you transform.  Did you actually think that I couldn’t see you out there in the hallway?  The door to the room had a window on it, dear.  I could see right through it…and through your pretending innocence."
Lilia turned to the other Astros, while still keeping her eye on Astatine to make sure she didn’t do anything.  "Okay, guys," she whispered.  "When I count to two, we run."
"Why two?" Daphne asked.
"She’ll be expecting me to count to three, right?" Lilia smirked.  "When we run on two she’ll be thrown off."
"Good strategy," Dani commended her.  "And to think that I’m the leader…"
"Okay, ready?" Lilia asked.  "One, two."  The four girls took off running across the field.
"Hey!" Astatine whined.  "Wait for me!"  She ran after them, but tripped on her high heels.  Meanwhile, the Astros had already entered the school building and were running through the halls.  "Damn you, stupid little insubordinates!"
The Astros, already in the school, ducked into a classroom.  "Hello, girls, may I help you?" the teacher inside asked.
"Um…" Daphne faltered.  "Sorry mister, wrong classroom!"  They left and went into a supply closet.
"Guys?" Sara asked.  "Why’d we just go in here?  We won’t be able to transform!"
"Sure we can," Lilia said, out of breath from running.  "We transformed before in a little shack on the pier, I think we can transform in here too."  To demonstrate her theory, Lilia called out her transformation phrase.  "Vega Astral Star Power!"  She transformed, then posed triumphantly.  "See?"
"Okay…" Sara agreed.  "Io Astral Star Power!"
"Zephyr Astral Star Power!"
"Inferno Astral Star Power!"
Fully transformed, the girls opened the supply closet door and all came tumbling out at once, overturning a garbage can that was inside, along with several brooms, mops, dustpans, and feather dusters.
"Ohh, ick!" Io squealed.  "There’s garbage all over the place!"
"You think that’s bad?" Inferno asked.  "I got a half-empty milk carton spilled on my sailor skirt.  Now there’s a stain."  She looked down at her skirt, then wrinkled her nose.  "Chocolate milk.  Eew."
"Oh, come on, guys," Zephyr stood up.  "It’s just a little bit of…aaaaahh!"  She jumped away from the pile of things that had spilled out of the closet, looking at it in disgust.
"What?" Inferno asked, panicky, looking around.
"A spider!" Zephyr screamed.  "Yuck, yuck yuck…MAKE IT GO AWAY!"
"Where’s a spider?" Io jumped up as well, clinging to Zephyr.
"Right there," Zephyr said, pointing near where Inferno was sitting.  "See?"
Inferno got up.  "I don’t see a—oh, there it is," she said, noticing the spider.  "It’s just a spider, guys."
"Yeah, an insignificant little creature," Vega said, raising her boot to step on it.
"WAIT!" Inferno grabbed Vega’s boot, throwing her off balance and causing her to fall.
"What was that for?" Vega demanded, getting up and brushing herself off.
"Don’t squash it," Inferno said.
"Then what am I supposed to do with it?" Vega asked.  "Let it crawl all over me?"
"No, just leave it alone," Inferno said.  Vega rolled her eyes.
Suddenly, they heard footsteps coming down the hall.  It was Astatine.  "I finally…caught up…with you…" she said, out of breath.  Then, noticing the Astros, she said, "Hey, where’d they go?"
"Never mind where those girls went," Zephyr said.  "You shouldn’t have been chasing after them in the first place."
"Oh, really?" Astatine asked.  "And what do you plan to do about that?"
"Um…we don’t really know," Io said.
Astatine laughed.  She waved her hand in front of her own face, then spread her arms out, producing a line of clones of herself.  "You should always have a plan before you rush into battle."
"Uh oh," Inferno muttered.  "Clones.  We’re in trouble."
"Hey!" a voice said.  Astatine turned and looked for the origin of the voice, and saw Sailors Spica, Nova, and Orion coming out of another classroom.  Nova was the one who had spoken, and she said, "You know, you really shouldn’t pick on less powerful people.  Unless, that is, you actually want me to beat you up."
"Hey!" Inferno yelled at her.  "We are not less powerful!"
Nova ignored her and continued.  "So maybe you should get out of here before I decide to physically throw you out."  Then, noticing the clones, said, "Or at least throw out one of you…"
"Pathetic little Sailors," one of the Astatine clones said.  More clones appeared, surrounding all seven of the Astros.
"I think we’re outnumbered," Io pointed out.
"We’re not outnumbered," Orion said.  "We’re very outnumbered.  We are so outnumbered it’s not even funny."
"So what do you suggest we do?" Zephyr asked, somewhat sarcastically.
"Well, you’re the leader, aren’t you?" Orion shot back.  "You think of something."
"Well…" Zephyr began.  "RUN!"
 
 
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