In the basement of an old, abandoned house, a man paced back and forth.  Then he turned to the four young women standing in front of him.  "Asteroid, Sattelite, Blackhole, Meteorite."
 "Yes, Master 9, sir."  The four women kneeled before him.
 "Which one of you wants to go look for the Dead Crystal today?" Master 9 asked.
 "I will!" Sattelite hopped forward eagerly.
 Meteorite shoved her aside.  "No, I’ll go."
 "No, I will!" Asteroid pushed them both aside.  "I’ll go, all right, Master 9?"
 "What’re you talking about, I already said I’d go!" Sattelite protested.
 "No, I’m going to go look for the Dead Crystal!" Meteorite said.  "Besides, I’m more competent than either of you."
 "You are not!" both Sattelite and Asteroid argued.
 "Everyone just SHUT UP!" Master 9 yelled.  Immediately the three arguing women stopped yelling and got back into line.  "Blackhole was the only one not fighting, so I’ll send her."
 "Thank you, Master 9," Blackhole said.  "I’ll do my best."
 "Make sure you do," Master 9 said before disappearing.
 "Suck up," Meteorite muttered.
 "I wasn’t sucking up!" Blackhole said.  "I just wasn’t making a fool of myself like you all were, so that’s why Master 9 let me take this mission."
 "It’s not fair," Sattelite pouted.  "I should have had this mission, I called it first."
 "When will you grow up, Sat?" Asteroid asked.
 "Never, probably," Blackhole said.  "Well, I’ve really got to go, I’ve got a mission to complete."  She left the basement, waving to the other women.  "See ya."
 
 

"The following students have earned a 3.5 grade point average or higher…" the principal of Avalon High School droned on.  Dani rolled her eyes.  She hated awards assemblies at school, especially when she didn’t get any awards.
 "Why doesn’t he just shut up?" Lilia whispered.  "I mean, he just talks and talks on and on."
 "Shh!" Shiloe hissed.  "He’s going to call the honor roll students!  I hope I get the honor roll!"
 "What do you mean, you hope?" Daphne repeated.  "You _are_ going to get on the honor roll.  Obviously."
 "I hope I do, too," Michelle said.  "Otherwise my parents would be disappointed."
 "…Shiloe Jefferson…"  The principal was calling names, and Shiloe’s was one of the names he called for the honor roll.
 "Yay, Shiloe!" Sara cried.
 "…and Lilia de Larke," the principal finished the list of honor roll students with Lilia’s name.
 "I got on the honor roll?" Lilia asked, surprised.  "Wow.  And here I thought I was getting a C in math, but apparently I’m not!"
 "But I wasn’t called," Michelle said quietly, looking down at the ground.
 "It’s okay, Chelle," Sara said.  "You probably got good grades anyway, even if you didn’t get on the honor roll."
 "But that means that I must have gotten more than one B!" Michelle said, in obvious distress.  "My mom will be really upset.  And then next semester she’ll be pressuring me more than ever to make all A’s."
 "You’ll probably get A’s next semester, don’t worry," Shiloe reassured her.  At that moment, she felt sorry for Michelle.  At least her father didn’t bother her all the time to get good grades.  But that was because he knew she’d get all A’s.  She wished there were some way she could make Michelle feel better, but she couldn’t.
 "Hey, look on the bright side," Sara said.  "At least you aren’t getting any C’s or D’s, like I am."
 "I don’t think that made her feel any better, Sara," Lilia said.  "Besides, you always get at least one D and two C’s."
 "I know, I’m used to it by now," Sara said, then turning to Michelle, she said, "Really, Michelle, you’re going to—"
 Sara was interrupted by one of the walls of the gymnasium crashing in.  A girl stepped through the crashed-in wall and extended one arm toward the principal.  A mist floated out from behind her, and whoever it touched fell over in a faint, including the principal.
 "She’s got to be one of the Periodics!" Dani realized.  Turning to the others, she said, "Come on!  We’ve got to go somewhere and transform, and don’t let the mist touch you!"  She and the others all ran out of the auditorium and out into the hallway.
 "Zephyr Astral Star Power!"
 "Vega Astral Star Power!"
 "Io Astral Star Power!"
 "Andromeda Astral Star Power!"
 "Orion Astral Star Power!"
 "Nova Astral Star Power!"
 "Spica Astral Star Power!"
 They had all transformed, all except for one.  "Hey, where’s Inferno?" Orion asked.
 "Oh, no!  She must have let the mists touch her!" Zephyr said.  "Then there’s another problem: how are we going to get in there without letting the mists touch us?"
 "Oh, I can fix that," Nova said.  "Nova Snow Blizzard!"  The swirling snow from Nova’s attack dissolved the mists, but unfortunately froze all of the unconscious people in blocks of ice.
 "Nice going, Nova," Orion said.
 "At least I got rid of the mists!" Nova defended herself.
 The woman who had intruded on the assembly glared at them, annoyed. "Who are you?"
 Zephyr jumped forward.  "We are the Sailor Astros, and on behalf of our school you’re not going to get away with interrupting our assembly!  Star Wind!"
 The woman dodged Zephyr’s attack.  "I am Blackhole, of the Celestials!  And I’m not letting you get away with interrupting my mission!  Wraith, come forth!"
 "What’s a wraith?" Io asked.
 "That’s a wraith!" Vega pointed to the principal.  Blackhole had his heart crystal, and he was turning into a monster.  He grew to the size of a gorilla and sprouted wings on his back, and his skin changed to a purple color.
 "Wraith, attack!" Blackhole ordered the principal, or rather, the monster that stood where the principal had just been.  The wraith flew towards the Astros and lashed out at them with its spiked tail.  But its tail missed the Astros and instead hit one of the blocks of ice that the students were frozen in.  It was the block that Daphne was frozen in, and when it split open Daphne was freed.
 "What’s going on here?" Daphne asked.
 "Go transform!" Zephyr said.  "No time to explain!"
 "Right," Daphne agreed, hurrying off to a safe place to transform.
 "Okay, let’s get this wraith guy," Nova said.  "Poison ice!"  Blocks of ice flew at the wraith, hitting it, but it kept going.  "Hey, what gives?" Nova muttered.  "How come it’s not working?"
 "Purity Healing," Spica whispered, waving her sword over the wraith’s head.  The wraith turned back into the principal, then dropped to the floor, exhausted.  "See, you heal, not kill."
 "But what about the heart crystal?" Andromeda asked.  "His heart crystal was taken out, and she still has it."
 Blackhole was examining the principal’s heart crystal closely.  "Not the Dead Crystal," she concluded.  "Oh well."  She was going to drop it, but Zephyr stopped her.  Zephyr jumped on Blackhole and tackled her.  Blackhole let go of the crystal and it went flying out of her hands…and right into Vega’s.  Vega returned the heart crystal to the principal.
 "Get off me, you psychotic little insect!" Blackhole screeched.
 "Um, let me think about that for a minute," Zephyr said, then, after pretending to think about it, said, "No, I don’t think I’ll be getting off anytime soon."
 "Oh, forget it!" Blackhole said.  "I’ll be back, though."  With that, she disappeared.
 "What’s going on here?" Sailor Inferno walked in after she finished transforming.
 "What took you so long?" Orion asked.
 "Well," Inferno began, "I couldn’t find a place to transform, then I couldn’t find my transformation pen, then I transformed, then I went to get a drink from the water fountain, then…"
 "Okay, we get it," Zephyr stopped her.  "Now, would it be possible for you to free all these other people?"
 "Sure!" Inferno said.  "Inferno Lava River!"  A stream of lava snaked around, melting the ice cubes.  "Done."
 "Great," Zephyr said sarcastically.  "Now we’ve got to go back to the boring assembly."
 
 

 "You failed, Blackhole," Asteroid said as Blackhole returned to the Celestials’ headquarters.  "Master 9 is going to be mad."
 "Shut up, Asteroid," Blackhole snapped.
 "Blackhole," Master 9 materialized from the shadows.
 "Darn, how does he always do that?" Blackhole muttered.
 "You didn’t find the Dead Crystal, I assume?" Master 9 asked.
 "No, sir, I did not," Blackhole said.
 "It doesn’t matter," Master 9 replied.  "Sattelite, you will go on the next mission to find the Crystal."
 "Yes, Master 9," Sattelite said.  "I won’t fail as miserably as Blackhole did.  I will find the one to destroy the world."