Sara ran down the halls of the school.  From overhead, she could hear the late bell ring.  "Darn it!" she muttered to herself as she continued to run through the halls.  She opened the door to her science class and dashed in.  Sliding into her seat, she recited the excuse she had planned to tell her teacher.  "Sorry I’m late, Mr. Cole, but my locker wouldn’t open."
 The teacher nodded.  "Just don’t let it happen again."
 "Hi, Dani!" Sara said, turning to her lab partner, who just happened to be Daniella.
 "Hey, Sara," Dani said.  "So you were late…again?  For the third time this week?"
 "Yeah.  Mrs. Parker kept me after class.  She was yelling at me because I kept talking to Michelle."
 "Now, how did I know _that_ would happen?" Dani replied sarcastically, rolling her eyes.
 "Yeah, how did you know that would happen?" Sara asked.
 "I was just being…never mind," Dani said, figuring that it was hopeless to try to explain the concept of sarcasm to Sara.  "Anyway, Cypress said to tell you that we’re going to have a meeting.  We’ll meet in the park near my house, okay?  He thinks that if anyone from Darkdeath is going to attack us that they won’t attack there, so it’d be safe.  I already talked to Daphne and Lilia, they said they’re coming.  Can you?"
 "I guess so," Sara replied.  "After school today, in the park?"
 "Right," Dani said.  "We meet by that tree by the lake, okay?  And bring Chrysta with you."
 "Okay!  Cool!" Sara cried.  The teacher glared at her.
 "Sara, please stop talking and try to pay attention all right?" the teacher said.
 "All right," Sara said.  Turning to Dani, she added, "Not!"
 
 

 "Hello, people!" Shiloe greeted everyone at the table in the cafeteria where the Astros sat for lunch.  "So, what’s going on?"
 "We’re having a meeting!" Sara blurted out.
 "Really?" Michelle asked.  "When?"
 "Today, after school," Dani explained.  "In the park.  Can you come?"
 "I can," Michelle said.
 "Cool," Dani replied.  "Shiloe? Moira?  Ryan?"
 Shiloe shook her head.  "No, sorry.  I’ve got to go to ballet, and Mo’s coming with me."
 Ryan decided that he didn’t want to go if Shiloe wasn’t going, so he made up a quick excuse.  "Basketball practice," he explained.
 "Oh," Dani replied, a little disappointed.  "That’s okay, your loss."
 "Look on the bright side, Dani," Lilia said.  "At least now Ryan and Daphne won’t be at each others’ throats the whole meeting."
 
 

 "No, I don’t think I’ll use this one…" Soldara said to herself.  She was looking through a spellbook of her daimons, trying to decide which one to use.  "Maybe this one," she thought aloud, turning the page in her spellbook to another daimon.  "No, not that one.  Oh, I just don’t have any more good daimons that I can use!"  She threw down her spellbook in frustration.
 "Wait a minute…" she said to herself, struck by an inspiration.  "I could go raid the other warriors’ rooms!  They’re all dead—except for Nova—so they wouldn’t mind."  She left her room and went down the corridor into Oscurio’s room.  But when she went into Oscurio’s room, it was empty.  "What happened in here?" she asked.  "Oh well, I’ll check Cuchillo’s."
 She opened the door to Cuchillo’s room, but it was so cluttered in there that she could barely get in.  "Just as I thought," she mused.  "Cuchillo took Oscurio’s things when he died."  She poked through the clutter.  "Hey wait, what’s this?" she asked, noticing something that had been buried among the junk that covered the floor.  She picked it up, then noticed what it was.  "A spellbook?  Hmm…maybe there are some daimons in this book that I could call up."
She paged through the book for a few minutes before finding something.  "This one," she decided, opening the book to a page.  On the page was a picture of a daimon that looked like a yellowish-orange frog.  Soldara recited the incantation that was written on the page, and the daimon jumped out of the book.  It looked like it did in the picture, a giant frog.  Soldara smiled.
"So you’re the daimon," she said.  "Good.  You will help me against the Astros…"
 
 

 "Mom, I’m home!" Sara announced.  She had just gotten home from school.  Sara set her backpack down on the couch, then looked around.  "Is there anyone home?" she wondered aloud.
 "Hi, Sara!" Chrysta cried.  She jumped out from her hiding place behind a bookshelf.
 Sara jumped in surprise, then glared at Chrysta.  "What’re you doing here?"
 "This is my house, that’s what I’m doing here!" Chrysta said.  She jumped over the bookshelf and sat on the couch in front of Sara.
 "No, I mean, what’re you doing here alone?" Sara asked.
 "Mom went to the store," Chrysta answered.  "She left me here alone for a few minutes."
 "You’re too young to be here alone, Chrys," Sara said.
 "No, I’m not!" Chrysta argued.  "I’m eight years old.  I’m old enough to do anything!"
 "Not drive," Sara pointed out.
 "Anything but that," Chrysta said.
 "Look, Chrys," Sara said, "grab your transformation wand.  The Sailors are meeting in the park.  And we’ve got to be there…" she glanced at the clock on the wall, "right now.  Come on!"
 "Wait!" Chrysta protested.  "I need my transformation wand."  She went into her bedroom, then popped out again, holding her purple and pink wand.
 "Okay then let’s go!" Sara said, pulling Chrysta out the door behind her.
 
 

 "Where are they?" Dani asked, to no one in particular.  She was pacing up and down the side of the lake in the park.  Lilia, Michelle, and Daphne were there too.  The only ones missing were Sara and Chrysta.
 "Maybe they got stuck in traffic," Daphne suggested.  She was sitting on a limb of a nearby tree that hung over the water.
 "How could they have gotten stuck in traffic if they’re walking?" Michelle pointed out, looking up at Daphne from her position on a bench under the tree.
 "Oh yeah," Daphne replied sheepishly, blushing a little.
 "Hey, there they are," Lilia pointed across the park to where Sara and Chrysta were running toward them.
 "It’s about time," Dani said to Sara as she and Chrysta arrived at the tree.  "Where were you?"
 "I had to go home from school and get Chrysta, but you guys all came here directly from school, so you guys got here earlier than we did.  It’s not my fault!" Sara said, as Chrysta climbed up into the tree.
 "Whatever," Dani replied.  "So let’s get started.  Cypress?"  She looked up into the branches of the tree at Cypress.  He flew down and landed on a low branch.  "So what’s this meeting all about anyway?"
 "Well," Cypress said, "I’ve heard that there was another warrior that the Death Ladies has sent out."
 "There is," Michelle told him.  "Her name is Soldara."
 "You’ve met her?" Cypress asked.
 "Yeah!" Chrysta said.  "That was the evil lady at the gymnastics place, wasn’t it?"
 "Yeah, that was her," Lilia said.  "When we were attacked at the gymnastics lesson, it was Soldara who had attacked us."
 "So you already know about her," Cypress said.  "Well, I had heard that she was going to attack—"
 He was cut off by a shrill scream coming from the front of the park.  "You were saying, Cypress?" Dani replied.
 Lilia noticed Kaylie running across the grass.  "Kaylie!" she called to her.  Kaylie stopped.
 "Lilia, you guys better get out of here!" Kaylie warned the Astros.  "There were these ice cream vendors near the tennis courts.  One of them turned into a monster, and they started attacking everyone!  You guys should leave while you can!"  Lilia was about to ask her for more information, but Kaylie just ran off.
 "Well, that settles it," Dani said.  "Transform, you guys!"  They all pulled out their transformation wands, raised them, and shouted their transformation phrases.
 "Zephyr Astral Star Power!"
 "Io Astral Star Power!"
 "Vega Astral Star Power!"
 "Arcturus Astral Star Power!"
 "Inferno Astral Star Power!"
 "Andromeda Astral Star Power!"
 They transformed, then ran in the general direction that the screams were coming from.  When they got there, they saw unconscious people lying on the ground, other people running away, and Soldara with one of her daimons.  The daimon was orangish-yellow, and it looked like a giant frog.  Upon seeing the daimon, Sailor Zephyr stopped.
 "You guys…" she took a few steps back toward the other Astros.  "Where have you seen that daimon before?"
 "The library!" Inferno cried out.
 "The one daimon we couldn’t defeat…" Sailor Vega said.  "But we’ll get him this time."  She stepped forward.  "Hey!"  The daimon and Soldara turned around.  "What do you think you’re doing?"
 "About time you guys showed up," Soldara said.  "Daimon, attack!"
 "Oh, no you don’t!" Inferno said.  "Inferno Lava River!"  The attack caught the daimon off guard, but he kept advancing.
 "What’re we going to do?" Sailor Io shrieked.  "What’re we going to do?"
 "Calm down, Io," Andromeda said.  "We’ll be okay."
 The daimon advanced on them.  Its tongue shot out of its mouth and grabbed Zephyr and Arcturus.
 "Pollen rain!" Vega yelled.  A cloud appeared above the daimon and rained on it, but the daimon didn’t do anything.  "Shoot, nothing happened."
 "Io Thunderbolt Shock!" Io yelled.  The thunderbolt she shot out cut through the daimon’s tongue and it released Zephyr and Arcturus.
 "Fire Dragon!" Soldara yelled in response.  A dragon made of fire appeared from nowhere and leaped toward them.
 "Hey!" Zephyr yelled out in surprise as the dragon scorched the bottoms of her boots.  "What’s up with that?"
 "Cloud Rain Freeze!" Arcturus yelled.  "Take that, dragon!"  The area clouded over, and when the clouds lifted, the daimon was trapped in ice and the dragon had been extinguished.
 "Good call, Arcturus!" Io said.
 "Thanks!" Arcturus replied.
 "So what’re we going to do about the daimon?" Vega asked.  The daimon was frozen in the block of ice and Soldara was trying desperataly to thaw it out.
 "Watch this!" Zephyr said.  She jumped at the block of ice and kicked it.  The ice, with the daimon in it, crumpled to the ground in a heap of dust.
 "Cool!" Io said.
 "You little twit!" Soldara cried.  She created a fireball between her hands and flung it at them.
 "Duck!" Inferno cried out, dropping to her knees so that the fireball flew safely over her head.
 "What duck?" Io asked, looking around.  Zephyr pulled her down before the fireball could hit her.
 Once the fireball was gone, Inferno stood up.  "Look, Soldara," she announced, "I’ve had it with you.  Volcano Chasm!"  A deep fissure filled with lava opened beneath Soldara.  Soldara fell into it, but managed to hold on to the side to keep from falling all the way in.  She tried to climb back up, but it was no use; she just fell back in again.
 Zephyr walked up to where Soldara was holding on to the side of the chasm.  "This is for what you have done to us," she told her, then stepped on Soldara’s hands.  Soldara fell into the chasm, but before she fell, she grabbed Zephyr’s ankle.
 "And this is for killing me, you insolent little Astro!" Soldara yelled out, as she fell into the chasm.  Zephyr was pulled into the chasm with Soldara, but she grabbed onto the edge to keep from falling in.
 "Zephyr!" Inferno cried out.  Vega ran to the side of the chasm where Zephyr was hanging and grabbed her arm.
 "I’ll get you out of this, Dani," Vega said to Zephyr.  She tried to pull her up, but she couldn’t.  "I could use some help here?!"
 "I’ll help," Andromeda offered.  "Vega, you grab one hand and I’ll take the other."  Vega and Andromeda each took one of Zephyr’s arms and pulled her up, with a little help from Inferno.  Once she was out, the fissure closed and returned to normal.
 "Thanks, guys," Zephyr said.  "I didn’t realize she’d try to kill me with her."
 "Well, at least we got rid of her," Io said.  "Or did we?"
 "Yes, we did," Andromeda assured her.
 Cypress flew down and perched on Zephyr’s shoulder.  "You’ve eliminated the Death Ladies’ last warrior," he told them.  "There aren’t any more warriors from Darkdeath…they don’t have any more warriors.  Now the Death Ladies will probably try to come after you themselves."
 "We’ll be ready for them," Zephyr said.