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Except for the books that were piled up substantially in every corner, John Jr’s bedroom was like every typical little boy’s. The bed was unmade. Super hero posters hung from the wall. On the desk, against the well, a Buzz Lightyear alarm clock blinked up at Vanessa with the wrong time.

There was no sign of the boy who lived there.

Vanessa’s eyebrows flew up into her hairline. She chewed thoughtfully on the inside of her cheek, and stomped over to the window-- which had been very obviously unstuck and was, to her utmost alarm, unlocked. There was a fire escape on the outside. For this reason, it was always locked fast.

She opened it with a mighty heave, shivered when a cruel gust of icy wind swept inside, and peered into the alley. It was early in the evening, but very dark. In the light of a streetlamp, barely visible, there twinkled a lonely set of small footprints.

There was no doubt in Vanessa's mind who they belonged to.  

---

John Jr had not wanted to put the star on top of the Christmas tree.

John Jr had locked his bedroom door.

John Jr had sneaked out.

Vanessa didn’t know what to think.

She stood in his window looking out at Destiny City with a solemn expression on her face for some time, and thought. It was well passed John Jr’s curfew. Oh- he was going to be in so much trouble when he got home. It wasn’t like him to be so disobedient, or so secretive.

There was something off. A piece that didn’t fit into the puzzle of his life.

The moon was hidden tonight behind a wall of dark clouds. Not a single star winked in the sky.

Maybe there was something on the air-

Perhaps it was just because John Jr was acting like a complete stranger-

But Vanessa was suddenly on edge. Feeling sick to her stomach, aware of all the time she was wasting on thinking when John Jr might have been in trouble, Vanessa ducked, for a moment, into her little brother’s closet and pulled out a pair of shoes. They were his and Vanessa suspected that they might be a little small for her feet, but was too restless to go and find her own. She slipped them on without further ado, and climbed out of the window.

Poking out of the back pocket of her jeans was the strange, but very pretty, pen that she’d found on the floor of Big Willy’s Record store.

---

Like his sister, John Jr had an adventurer’s heart. Unlike his sister, John Jr was not much of a fighter. His admiration for Vanessa knew know bounds, but he had always been a healer and had endeavored to combine his love for his sister, and for helping people into one super thing. He wanted to make Vanessa proud of him. He wanted to prove to her that she wasn't the only one who had to stand up to the bad guys.

Tonight was his first night. A test run, if you will, and an experiment.

Dressed to keep out the cold, with a blue table cloth tied around his neck and a black ski mask on his face, Mini Van strolled silently through Destiny City Park. It was impossible, with all of the snow, not to leave a trail. But he was (mostly) confident that he would not be discovered, and was free to go about delivering first aid to whomever needed it.

In his mittened hands he clutched a Scooby-Doo lunchbox, which was filled to bursting with things like band-aids and Neosporin and Q-tips.

Her hands stuck to the frozen metal of the fire escape, and Vanessa swore swiftly against the cold as she climbed down the ladder and alighted on an icy patch of alley road. The soles of John Jr's shoes did not have very good grip, and Vanessa, arms flailing in wide circles, nearly fell on her nose. She sucked in a sharp breath of air, exhaled slowly once she'd regained her balance, and watched the white cloud of her breath as it dissipated in the winter air.

It was too cold old.

Shivering involuntarily, unaware of the feline that stalked her, Vanessa hugged herself, and started down the path that John Jr had left behind. She moved briskly, vaguely regretted not grabbing a jacket before hopping out of the window, and eventually broke into a light jog.

John Jr's footprints were easy to follow in the light of the street-lamps. They disappeared in the wake of her wide strides

The park was not far from their home. Moving at the pace that she was, it did not take Vanessa very long to reach. Breathing a little heavily, ignoring the pang of the icy air inside her lungs, she veered into the trees and thought about the things that she would say to John Jr when she found him.

---

John Jr was tall for his age, but nowhere near fully grown, and looked almost pitifully small as he drew closer to the overgrown snowman. It was Mini Van's purpose to heal people and fix things. Tending to hapless snowmen who'd lost their noses wasn't on the agenda for the evening, but he figured he could spare a couple of moments.

He had not been walking for longer than a quarter of an hour, but had yet to come across anyone who needed his aid. There wasn't a single soul, besides his, in the park. The weather was too miserable.

Mini Van sighed, resolved to keep trying for just a little bit longer, and stooped to collect the fallen carrot from the snow.

Hopefully it would be nicer out tomorrow, and somebody would need a black eye tended to.

Once upon a time, Vanessa and John Jr had loved a goldfish too much. John Jr was very small, back then, and hadn't even been capable of climbing onto the sofa by himself. But together-- they had begged their father for a kitten, and Mr. Rae had come home with Bob.

Who they fed.

And fed.

And fed.

Until he'd learned how to swim on his back, and was sent on a magical whirlpool adventure.

He was their first, and only, pet.

Vanessa had a soft spot for animals, and was startled a little when a cat started yowling somewhere nearby. It occurred to her that the poor creature might be stuck up a tree, or starving on this cold winter night, but she had a little brother to find. However, the racket ********* made helped Vanessa, who'd lost John Jr's footprints in a sea of packed snow, find the correct path again by drawing her eyes in another direction.

Mini Van, meanwhile, was glancing between the carrot he held in his hands and the snowman. He did not know that he ought to be on his guard and, thus, failed to notice the way the youma's expression changed.

He would put the carrot back, he'd decided, and then go home. Because it was too cold to be outside, and he wanted to put the star on top of the Christmas tree. There would be a chair to stand on.

But here, in the park, Mini Van wasn't sure that he was tall enough.

Determined, tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth, the little boy stepped ever closer and stood on the tips of his toes to try and reeeeaaaach.

It was a moment or two before John Jr, who could not possibly know he was moments away from death, noticed the change in the snowman's expression. It was dark. He was too busy reaching, and not paying attention.

But then--

But then those jaws snapped forward, took a huge bite out of the carrot and missed his fingertips by inches. John Jr gasped and dropped it at once, brown eyes wide with horror. His little heart pounded in his little chest, and he struggled to make sense of what was happening.

Snowmen didn't move.

M-m-maybe it was a robot?

But, no. It was real. John Jr knew, because he'd felt the chill of the snow through his mittens.

Mini Van trembled where he stood, transfixed by the impossibility of this, and cried out in helpless surprise when it tried to push him to the ground. Instinctively, thinking that he should have stayed home, John Jr turned tail and fled.

---

Vanessa, closing in, heard Mini Van's little shout of surprise. Recognizing John Jr's voice, golden eyes widening with the exact same horror as his, she stopped short and swivelled on the spot.

Of the pair of them, John Jr had always been brighter. John Jr had always been more gifted. John Jr was forever better behaved. But it was Vanessa who punched holes in the wall. It was Vanessa who'd learned a little of the truth regarding Destiny City's underground war. She had fought a youma, and she had won. She had held Hairy Pete in her arms and watched, soul bleeding, as the life drained from his face.

Vanessa had shared some of these things, in the form of stories, with John Jr-- and she'd told him many of the most gory (and, therefore, exciting!) details, but always left out the parts, for both the sakes, about how frightened she'd been. Super Van was easier for them to accept when they pretended like Vanessa didn't take her life into her own hands every single time she donned that silly red cape.

"John Jr!" she called out to him, heart beating a wicked tattoo of terror, and peered through the darkness for any (and every) sign of her little brother. Dammit! Where was he?

"JOHN JR!"

Vanessa. Vanessa was there.

Over the frantic sounds of his heavy breathing and his thundering heart; despite the raucous crunching of the snow under his boots and the gentle roar of the abominable snowman gliding along behind him, John Jr heard his sister's call. As Mini Van, he'd snuck out because Vanessa refused to let him help Super Van. For his own good. He'd known, if he'd told her what he planned to do, that she would try to stop him.

Because she was so protective.

And, while he didn't know how she could help him fight this beast, having her nearby was incredibly comforting. It inspired enough hope in his little body that he did not immediately surrender to the youma's murderous will, and trudged through the snow as fast as his legs would carry him.

Thankfully nearby, but not yet close enough to be of any use, Vanessa waited impatiently with her hands cupped around her mouth for John Jr to answer her call. She was desperately expectant, and swore loudly under her breath when there came no response.

The girl took a deep breath, intended to shout again, and started at the presence of a strange voice behind her-- a voice she had never heard before, but that belonged to someone who knew her name nevertheless. She whirled on the spot, eyebrows flying into her hairline, and stared with some alarm at ********* Vanessa had not seen the things that she had seen, and experienced the things that she had experienced, a talking cat would have been cause for an enthusiastic to-do.

"Over here!" John Jr cried in the distance, voice cracking with fear, "Vanessa, I'm here!"

Perhaps, if John Jr hadn't needed her so obviously, Vanessa would have stopped to wonder about the impossibility of this. Except, it seemed, this was possible.

There was no time to lose.

"...Okay," faithful, trusting that this stranger of a talking feline meant well, Vanessa pulled the funny pen out of her pocket. She held it up and shouted into the night; "Vulcan Power, Make-up!"

There was a bright light... and then there was change. Vanessa's body was suddenly not her own, and she was compelled by Sailor Vulcan's magic into a new, superior state of being. At the end of her transformation, Sailor Vulcan seemed a bit like a newborn foal. Vanessa stood on quivering knees, staring down at her hands, and was a little bit overcome by the new power that flowed through her veins.

Oh, yes. Oh, <******** yes.

The snow was so cold underneath her bare feet and around her ankles, but insignificant compared to the supernatural strength that surged like fire in her blood. Pride radiated off of Sailor Vulcan in waves of raw energy, and those golden eyes glistened like lit candles in the light of the moon. She stood, experimentally flexing her arms and fingers for a whole heartbeat before the urgency in ********* voice and a terrified shout in the distance brought her back to the world.

Her head snapped in the direction of John Jr's panicked voice, and her lips twisted into a sneer.

Determined to save and destroy, Vulcan collected ********* from the ground with one fantastic sweep of her arm, and listened only half-heartedly as she dashed through the snow towards the helpless little boy who needed his big sister so desperately. It surprised Vanessa, to think that John Jr would not recognize her, and she shot a dubious, disbelieving look at *********.

She also nodded, because she didn't want to put him in any more danger than he already was.

---

Swish-swish-swish went John Jr's ski-pants as he raced through the snow. His pulse pounded in his ears. Tears slipped from his eyes and froze in broken rivulets against his cheeks.

It took all of Mini Van's self control not to look over his shoulder at the beast who plagued him, and he groped madly at the air in front of him with his hands; looked as though he was reaching for an invisible rope, and would try to propel himself forwards if only he could get a good hold of it.

It was like JAWS. Only the shark was a snowman from hell and the water that he waded through had condensed into snowflakes.

"Vanessa!" John Jr sobbed, because he knew his sister was nearby. He'd heard her! "Vanessa, help me!"

Gritting her teeth, closing in at the same pace that the youma did, Sailor Vulcan took a running leap over Mini Van's head. It was her intention to land between the boy and the youma, but she was very new to this power, and overshot the distance. Instead of intercepting the danger path and doing as ********* had instructed, Sailor Vulcan face planted ungracefully in the snow at the youma's feet. Poor ********* was probably hanging on for dear life.

This was an accident.

It was not Vulcan's intention to jostle the cat. It was also not Vulcan's intention to cannonball face first into the snow. But these things happened and, because John Jr was now officially out of harms way, they were mostly successful. She spluttered where she landed, coughing on a mouthful of the chilly white powder, and looked up just in time to see the youma's jaws open wide.

The dark cavern of it's mouth loomed before her like some kind of bad omen, and Vulcan imagined, for a moment, that it had really bad breath. An expression of disgust took over her face, and she half-crawled, half rolled backwards-- away from him.

Behind her, horror struck and trembling, John Jr stared as though he couldn't believe his eyes.

The snow was so cold that it burned against her bare skin, but there was no time to notice, or to worry about frostbite. Vulcan scrambled towards John Jr as quickly as she could, with ********* cradled protectively against her chest, and then lunged at him with her free arm.

Vanessa held her little brother close, her breath ruffling the fringe of hair that peeked out of his ski-mask, and finally did as ********* had instructed.

"Vulcan Shield!" she cried.

At once the ground started to shake. As far as earthquakes went, this one would barely register on the Richter scale. But it was there. John Jr, terrified for his life and wondering where his big sister had disappeared to, clung to Sailor Vulcan in her stead.

One by one, jets of steam erupted from little fissures that had opened up in the ground. Higher and higher they climbed through the air, until senshi, cat and boy were enveloped in a dome of hot air. Everywhere Vulcan looked, snow was melting.

Inside the veil of steam that protected Sailor Vulcan, ********* and John Jr from the mindless and venomous wrath of the snowman Vanessa's eyes glistened like a pair of gold nuggets. The layer of hot air separating them from the rest of the world made everything beyond Vulcan's Shield appear a trifle hazy and unfocused.

But Vulcan did not need to be able to see clearly to comprehend what was happening to the screaming youma.

Vulcan's Shield cut the sharp profile of a ring in the snow that surrounded them, and it was so warm inside that, by the end, the trio sat upon a patch of grass that was dripping with moisture. John Jr, who was dressed more appropriately for a night in an igloo than for thirty seconds inside of a sauna, wanted to take his jacket off.

Once the youma had perished and Vulcan's Shield was used up, John Jr pulled away. He stared up into Vulcan's face, and shivered violently at the chill of the Winter air. It contrasted painfully with the temperature of his body.

"Who are you?"

Without thinking Vanessa, who was also affected by the cold, but less so, opened her mouth to answer. It was ********* little mewl that kept her words at bay. She looked down at the cat, smiled faintly, and then set ********* down gently beside her.

"My name," she looked back to John Jr, "is Vulcan. Sailor Vulcan."

[FIN]