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Out in the middle of the woods – not too far from the campgrounds of Camp Larkspur – the teenaged Haley Jones rested peacefully in her quiet tent. Although she would have preferred a companion for her camping adventure – instead of being all by her lonesome in the dark woods – Haley was not feeling nervous at all. After all, how could she feel anxiety? She was high as a ******** kite.

As the last embers of her marijuana-packed pipe flickered away, she zipped up her tent securely so that no bugs or small creatures could weasel their way in. She took off her shirt and bottoms, preferring to sleep in just her underwear – it was much too hot out for her pajamas, even at night. She fluffed her pillow and tucked herself into her sleeping bag, and only then did she blow out the candle that laminated the tiny tent.

And then there was total darkness. Not even the moon’s beams were able to penetrate the tent, leaving Haley in darkness just right for sleeping. As she slowly drifted off into her slumber, she heard a faint noise of rustling bushes close by. Normally, a sane and levelheaded teenage girl alone in the dark woods would be alarmed by such a noise. Haley, however, was not sane nor levelheaded.

However, as the rustling stopped, she heard the sounds of a rumbling growl as tiny footprints made their way closer to her tent. Haley sat up, still tightly zipped into her sleeping bag, only now slightly alarmed. The footprints grew louder and the growls more malicious as Haley slowly unzipped her sleeping bag as quietly as she could. She was only able to unzip the bag halfway before the tent itself shook as the mysterious being outside rattled on the tent.

Haley knew the best response would be to remain silent and calm, but she could not help it. She shrieked as her body flailed in fright, her legs still wrapped tightly in the sleeping bag. The shriek only seemed to anger the creature lurking outside as the tent began to shake harder and harder – the stakes holding the tent down were thrust out of the dirt – and the tent begin to topple inwards as the creature continued to attack it. Haley was panicked, still shrouded in darkness and trapped not only within a sleeping bag but now in a falling apart tent as well. She wrestled her way out of the sleeping bag just as the creature wrestled its way into the tent.

RRRRRRRRRRRIPPPPP.

The creature’s claws tore a large opening in the tent as it began to burrow its way in. She felt the creature’s hot and smelly breath against her ankles as she searched blindly for the zipper to the tent to make her own exit. As her fingers fumbled in desperation, she found the tiny zipper and hurriedly unzipped a small hole in the tent. Haley slipped her slim body through the narrow opening she made.

Now able to see with the moonlight’s aide, she saw an unusual, monstrous creature digging through her tent. She stumbled backwards in fright, toppling over the roots of a tree as she shrieked once more. The creature turned towards her – now it was the one half tangled in the tent. It struggled to become unstuck, and Haley took this opportunity to make an escape.

She rushed closer towards the Camp Larkspur grounds, only to redirect herself halfway there towards the park ranger’s cabin – where that park ranger Azzo had told her to go earlier in the event of any trouble. She had never imagined there to be any trouble, or to ever be one to report to any type of an authority, but in this situation she saw little other choice. The monster had found its way out of the tent, and was running towards her at rapid speeds. The teenage girl hurried on running, wearing nothing but her underwear, screaming for help.

“HELP! AZZO! SOMEBODY! HELP ME!” she shrieked as she hurried through the woods, a monstrous creature chasing behind her and rapidly approaching.

As soon as the beast was off her trail and onto Azzo's, Haley stumbled and hid behind a tree. She peered around the trunk to watch - although she knew that the wiser decision would be to continue running for her life. However, wisdom and Haley rarely went hand in hand. Her legs were trembling her fear, her heart racing, pumping adrenaline through her body like never before. She hardly stood still for long enough to slow her breathing before she reacted again and began running - this time towards Azzo and the creature.

"Azzo! What are you doing?" she shrieked. Surely the boy who earlier was too naive to recognize the smell of her marijuana would be no match for this strange monster in the woods. Haley was an animal lover, and as much as she didn't want to see the boy attack the other creature - she knew he likely had little choice unless they were both to die. "Be careful! You can't fight that thing on your own!"

Haley must have been running for a nomination in the Scream Awards because once again - she shrieked like Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween...or The Fog...or Prom Night...or Terror Train...and even Freaky Friday. The underwear-clad girl was shocked and amazed by Azzo's sudden physical transformation from a wimpy kid to some sort of wimpy kid superhero. Fumbling backwards, she nodded with fear-filled tears forming.

"Be safe," she called before turning around and running as far away as she could. She ran barefoot through the woods - her feet aching from scratching against the twigs and rocks lying across the floor and her body being scratched from the bushes she ran past. She ran for all her life, her muscles feeling tense, only relying on the adrenaline to keep her pedalling forward. She ran, faster than she ever knew she could until ----

--- she tripped over something fuzzy, falling over flat. She landed just barely on her hands, saving her head from cracking on the tree root that it fell onto. She was bleeding, her legs were cut from the bushes, and her face and palms were scratched from the fall.

"What the ********," she whimpered, unable to hold back from crying as she looked down at her feet. What had she tripped on? Was it a creature? Another monster?

What was it?

Haley was a believer. She believed in a lot of things, such as past lives, her psychic abilities, and the notion that gravity is just something scientists created to keep people from trying to fly. She also had long believed that she shared a special bond with being animals and was able to understand them. But never before had one spoken so clearly to her - and with such vulgarity at that! At least, this hasn't happened to her before when she wasn't tripping on some illicit drug. This was clearly a special cat - or perhaps her psychic powers had heightened!

"Do you understand me, cat?" Haley asked. She was still terrified about whatever was happening not too far away with Azzo and the monster, but for now, she was far more intrigued by the cat. "Because I understand you."

"I'm special, just like you," she said, as if sharing a dark secret.

"Yes!" Haley's eyes widened as she sprung onto her knees, as if pleading with the small cat. As one who is constantly seeking a new cause to feed her self-righteousness, this opportunity meant a big, great, magical deal to her. "I knew I was special, I knew I wasn't crazy! If there is something I can help with, I love helping! As long as it doesn't involve hurting anything - people, animals, or the world - I am willing to help! Or involve working. I hate working. But please, oh please, oh please let me help!"

She picked up the cat and playfully rattled her. "Please, please, please, please."

At first, Haley was more than interested. She had been protesting on the streets for only two weeks to clean up the streets of Destiny City from whatever crimes caused the recent deaths and disappearances - and already she had found herself on a path to truly do something good? Miracles do come true!

However, something was not right. "Make up?" she questioned, looking at the funny looking pen with a sunflower decor on it. "I'm sorry, but I don't wear make up cause a lot of it is tested on animals like yourself, and I just don't agree with that practice. I mean, how can you tell me to do that? Aren't you an animal that would care for other animals? And how is wearing make up supposed to help me anyways? I mean, if you want me to just shout Aster Power Make Up! then I can but---"

Haley's self-righteous rant was cut off as an overwhelming sensation took over. Her body felt like it was glowing as a physical and magical transformation occurred, turning the nineteen year girl clad only in her underwear into...



Sailor Aster.

"WHAT THE HELL?" she shouted, no longer passive to the strange magical occurrences of the evening. She had so many questions - but was unable to articulate them. What had happened to her? Why does she feel so different? Are these clothes organic?

So many vital questions to be answered!

Okay Niflhel had just pissed the thing off more trying to wrangle it. He started running, okay maybe Haley was right he couldn't handle this on his own where was Polaris when you needed her? .. Oh wait that wouldn't do any good either there was nothing metal around here.

"You dumb beast can't you go back to Density and let me have a vacation from having to kill you!?" He almost ran past Sailor Aster and a cat. "OH HI." He was panting slightly before turning around just in time to be tackled, "FFFF"

He aimed a kick up towards the things stomach. "Mind helping a page?" He directed towards the couple using his arms to try to keep the thing from eating his face off.

Azzo paused, "OHHH." He looked her over for just a bare moment before swinging his chain and actually leashing the 'puppy'. "Okay we'll discuss the identity thing later! Puppy here has been a bad boy."

He was trying to hold it from going anywhere as it got pelted by the seeds. The chain however was slipping and he aim'd a kick for it's hindquarters. "Come on doggy look at me and not the senshi."

When it did he aimed another punch for the face, he paused, "We'll uh... I'll make it up to puppy later for hitting him, right now we have to teach him that trying to eat people is bad okay?"

Niflhel seemed to be thinking the same thing Aster was, wrestling he finally give it one last kick which busted it into dust. "Okay... now that that's over... where do we start with you."