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 Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2012 1:12 pm
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Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2012 1:15 pm
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Four years prior to the opening of our storyline Sidra Winters and Charys Murphy were awakened by Astraea as the first senshi in Destiny City. Not much overly remarkable happened in that time other than minor struggles here and there while General-King Charonite, Gunn Killingworth, started to regain his power base in North America.
---
Two years before Barren Pines, the Zodiac senshi (save Pisces, who was too young) were awakened in Destiny City. Shortly thereafter, Charonite and Hematite arranged for their murder. All awakened Zodiac senshi died, except for Scorpio. Upon their arrival at the Cauldron, their Prince Eon bargained with it for the immediate rebirth of all of the Zodiac… except for himself. Prince Eon sacrificed every reincarnation left to him to power the return of the Zodiac and protect the Surrounding.
Six months into our storyline a new, fancy, innovative school called Barren Pines Academy for Gifted Youth was opened...though everyone could have sworn it was always there to begin with! In truth it was a school populated by youma, thinking they were normal schoolchildren, with only a few Negaverse agents infiltrated at the top tier of administration, as well as amongst the student body. As time went on students started dying in grisly ways, being found on the grounds and in their beds, while the school simply, calmly stated that they had died of bacterial meningitis. This was obviously false but no one could truly figure out what was going on!
Then the fire started. Set by the Negaverse agents to cover their tracks a giant bubble sprang up over the school so no one could escape. Rapidly now the students died in their beds, were decapitated by the Negaverse, mayhem reigned. Yet there was something that the General-King had not anticipated when he had unknowningly allowed in those reborn Zodiac senshi. Revealed in the chaos they broke the bubble over the school using their Zodiac power, their princess using her crystal and their cooperative powers to bring some of the kids back to life. Yet none of them could quite remember what had gone on.
Destiny City wrote the entire thing off as an organ harvesting ring gone wrong and the ruins of the school were condemned. They sit above the city now as a reminder of...something no one really knows.
---
A few months later an odd tree started growing in the middle of Destiny City Park. A new type of monster started to appear known as Cardians that would turn into collectible cards when defeated. The Negaverse were as confused as the senshi about the happenstance and fought the Cardians as well as the senshi, both amassing a decent collection of these remnants.
After some time the alien beings that lived inside of the tree, six in all, were revealed and devoured by the Negaverse. Charonite called his strongest agents into the field and massacred them all in front of the watching senshi, trapped from aiding those that they were trying so desperately to teach how to love and care for the things around them. The tree was absorbed, destroyed, rendered into a powerless seed that no one has seen since.
---
Unfortunately for the powered denizens of Destiny City, they were not aware of another threat that had cleverly crept into its midst to sow more Chaos and dissension than they could have realized. A being called Wiseman, with his companion Black Lady Serenity, had gone into the mirror dimension to find the banished Queen Nehelenia living a life free of the Chaos Seed that had previously inhabited her. They attacked her and stole her crystal before returning to the current dimension, tricking the innocent Princess Chronos into a trap so that her own was stolen.
This resulted in the Queen bringing herself, her prince Alexandros, and several members of her court into this realm where she did not belong to retrieve the property that was hers. Thus the Parallel Court was born through shoving the souls of her loyal followers, the counterpart to the Solar System senshi into those friends she found worthy.
This made Wiseman gleeful for her prince had in his possession yet another crystal and a weakness for his royal brother, pushed into the body of the prince’s host’s best friend in Destiny City. The brother, intending to prey on the lonely heart of Black Lady Serenity, struck up a friendship that resulted in his being double-crossed in a way he did not expect. Kidnapped and trapped by Wiseman a trap was set. Prince Alexandros was to bring his crystal to the meeting...and he did.
But what none of the three present had expected was that Alexandros destroyed his crystal. The force of all of that power being unleashed should have killed everyone in the radius of the fallout. Thankfully for all of those in Destiny City Alexandros was out of his realm and his crystal was not as powerful as it should have been. It did, however, toss most of the population into a deep sleep as they entered the alternate dream realm Tartaros - land of nightmares.
Immediately martial law was declared in the city. Schools were closed, you could not move about the city without express permission from the National Guard, hospitals were overflowing with the bodies of what were called ‘coma patients’. Those young people who were suddenly without parental care were made to board at Crystal Academy or Hillworth School.
For months while Alexandros’ soul was held in suspension at the center of Tartaros those who had fallen into the sleep, of both Chaos and Order, were forced to work together. They were to solve the riddles and puzzles of their separate lands before unlocking all of the seals to release the center land of the nightmare realm. There were only a choice few that made it through in the end and all perished as they destroyed the remnant of Alexandros: Wiseman, Queen Nehelenia, Sailor Aphrodite, the captain of her senshi, Prince Hector, the brother of Alexandros, and Alexandros himself. Black Lady Serenity awoke from her nightmare to find herself again in the purified, young body that is now Sailor Chibimoon.
---
Fast-forward a few months and a strange power signature appeared in what was the center of a nightmare haymaze in the Destiny City carnival. Several teams of people went in but only one reached the center where, from all tales, a monster was found! Unfortunately there was nothing to corroborate these findings...until the masquerade at the end of the week. All Hallows Eve saw a ball that all the city were invited to as a goodwill gesture and hoping to usher in a new era of peace and prosperity to the bereaved town.
Unfortunately, as many who live in the city could have told the organizers of the event, this was not going to be possible. A massive cake was possessed by a power that not even the senshi and the Negaverse had been aware of until that night and a great battle ensued for the power that was inside the cake: a Rainbow Crystal. Queen Beryl knew that if she could obtain all the fragments of rainbow crystal she could perhaps re-summon the power of Princess Serenity; the forces of the White Moon wanted it for the same reason though with a different end in mind.
The Negaverse was victorious that night and throughout the months that followed only a few more of these crystals have been found. Instead, something more sinister and much more innocent-looking had pervaded the town.
---
Delicate looking snowglobes from a company known only by the name of Imperium Greetings were all the rage in the town and everyone seemed possessed with the need to have as many of the dancing ladies as possible. What none of them knew was that they were being compelled by evil magic to give their positive emotions, their happy wishes, to that globe to draw to our planet something so darkly malevolent that for one of the only times in history the senshi and the Negaverse would have to work together to defeat her: Snow Queen Kaguya.
Icing over the town and freeing the dancers inside the snowglobes to wreak havoc on everyone living was her aim. There was little time for petty power squabbles when it was clear that if they did not do something they would all lose, forcing them all to fight together and destroy her base of power. Of course not everyone was on board, but she was defeated and Christmas morning was blissfully uneventful.
---
Being that this is Destiny City and the Negaverse does not give up it was only a matter of time before things escalated to the boiling point again before spring had even fully sprung. Banding together to defeat the invader Kaguya did not at all impress upon the two factions the necessity to live and work together to repel invaders as each side considered each other the invader as well. Unfortunately for the senshi their numbers and their powers were growing making it very hard for the guardian cats to dampen their signatures as they met.
Kurma, a powerful space-traveling being was able to pull most of the senshi gathering into space one night when it was attacked but it was Chibimoon who opened the way into the dream realm of Elysion hoping that perhaps there could be a sanctuary for the senshi and their allies. What she could not know was that the Negaverse had the power to reach into the dream realm as well, setting off an epic struggle for one of the most treasured places in all of Earth’s existence.
Many warriors fell in the three battles for the zones of Elysion with only the Temple itself remaining fully inviolate under the power of the Priestess Helios. Even then eventually the Temple was invaded as both sides learned stories of the past and warnings for the future; whether or not they were true remains a question today. It was deep inside the heart of the Temple that the true prize was found: the Golden Crystal of Earth.
A man claiming to be Endymion, the Prince of the Earth and rightful wielder of the crystal also appeared but to no avail. Helios, also known as Sailor Pegasus of Dreams, claimed the crystal rightfully for her own and cast everyone, even the senshi, from her sanctuary. To this day the only ones that can enter are the Three Eyes and the Priestess herself, with only a few guests and only in a few places depending on your guide. The mystery man, and whether or not his identity is legitimate, is another unanswerable question to this day.
Whether it is because Elysion was violated or because the supposed Prince of the Earth has returned a new power had been awakened amongst the citizens of the city: the Knights of the Order. Representing the nine planets of the Solar System they were cautious allies of the White Moon with a type of power that had been sorely needed. Sailor Cosmos also revealed a power that could be applied by senshi who had achieved their birthright power as royals: the ability to purify an agent of the Negaverse. It was a colossal victory for the side who, until then, had only had the option to kill the officers. Now there was a more peaceful solution which set many senshi to questioning and perhaps sowing more dissention than anything else could have.
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In the background of all of this came the rise of a small faction of senshi who did not have the same reservations of the soldiers previous. They did not care what means were used to achieve the goal of eradicating the Negaverse from the planet and called themselves the Blood Moon Court. Obsessed with training, incredibly secretive, they were a mercenary force that was willing to employ any methods necessary: including torture.
Kidnapping several agents of the Negaverse they were kept and tortured for over a week for information by the Blood Moon Court’s senshi. Eventually the Negaverse was able to pinpoint the location of their agents and infiltrate the hideout of the Court but for some it was too late: several officers had died and Tanzanite had been tortured into something that would have died herself had she not consumed the starseed of a fallen General King Marthozite, slain by Sailor Ares.
Collapsing in pain and rage the general became something terrible and powerful, the first Greater Youma to be released over the city in a form of a black phoenix that took nearly almost all the power that the senshi and knights could throw at the beast before defeating it. Still, when everything was over, Tanzanite had risen as a General-Queen and the Blood Moon was exposed for what they truly were.
Somehow, no one truly can say how it happened or how it came to be the last remnant of Nehelenia’s court from the Mirror Realm, Sailor Ares, obtained the power of a royal senshi but twisted -- she was now the Dark Mirror Queen. Corrupted by Chaos she appeared in the meeting of the Blood Moon Court that had turned against her, corrupting several members on the spot into Dark Mirror senshi and offering the opportunity to any who would want it if only they called her.
With the appearance of the knights and the Dark Mirror things were becoming more and more dangerous and things were coming to a head for both factions on the planet, but it was not only Earth that was in danger. Several months later this was demonstrated.
---
Princess Chronos was the princess of the Surrounding, which was kept and protected by her senshi, known as the Zodiacs. Because it had been in such disrepair, because the power was failing, many civilians of Destiny City as well as several senshi simply vanished one summer’s day to reappear in space. Of course it was because the Surrounding was under attack by youma so vast in size and in power that it was almost impossible to protect the place. Weeks passed as the civilians were trapped by some odd force, almost constantly under attack by the Negaverse and Dark Mirror forces that had made it to space from the now-corrupt planet Alkaid. The senshi started arguing amongst each other, civilians started dying, and eventually everything simply fell apart.
It took one great battle to eliminate every civilian residing in the Surrounding which was, perhaps, the biggest mistake the forces of Chaos could have made. The pure power of all those released souls bubbled up around the forces of Order, protecting them so that they could realize that the only way to destroy these forces was to bind their powers together and use a great attack known only as the Sailor Planet Attack.
It was from this great release of power that the Surrounding was restored though it is still periodically under attack still. Every civilian that had died at the Surrounding reappeared on Earth but unlike the students of Barren Pines, remembered every moment of their ordeal. Many of them now attend the Horizon Institute of Technology and Science (HITS) to try and understand what they experienced...or just because they love science!
---
Perhaps the most recent surprise among the forces of Chaos was that Metallia, the power behind each and every officer of the Negaverse, had abandoned her chosen queen to death. No one is entirely sure how it happened only that through a series of strange events Queen Beryl has been declared dead upon the orders of Metallia, carried out by the newly-made General-King Howlite.
No one, however, should take this as a sign that the Negaverse is without leadership and without a unified purpose. The leadership of the General-Kings and General-Queens is as strong as any that has come before it with the added bonus of having been born in this time, born in this city.
---
Despite these great events there is still no clear upper-hand in the battle for dominance on this small planet of Earth and certainly not in the rapidly-shrinking metropolis of Destiny City. Every day more senshi, more knights, more officers are awakened to the call of whatever power it is that will drive their lives from here on out.
Perhaps, one day, the war will end.
---
Starting in May of 2014, many of the magical soldiers of Destiny City, be they Chaos or Order, began to have nightmares. Nightmares of death and destruction, of what seemed to be the end of the world. Worse, they feel horrifyingly prophetic. For months, these dreams continue, making sleep difficult.
In October, those same powered soldiers began to experience more vivid flash-forwards, visions of a future in which the Negaverse has gone public and holds power over the entire world. Order was forced into hiding, under threat of death or corruption for themselves or their family members should they be discovered. The Dark Mirror Court hovered between, with many choosing to defend Order, some choosing to side with the Negaverse, and some choosing to stay out of the war altogether.
The Negaverse was not content to have the balance of power in their favor - they would brook absolutely no resistance at all. So they gathered their forces and led a vicious attack on Order’s primary camp, home to both their fighters and their noncombatants. The battle was vicious, and many were slain. Order’s remnants launched a counterattack on a Negaverse rally, but they were too few and their enemies too many. They were overwhelmed, and those not killed on the field were captured and either killed or corrupted in a public ceremony days later.
Order had lost. All who remained would bow to the Negaverse.
This future was not, however, set in stone - and some now work to avert it, while others seek to bring it about.
Then, in January of 2016, there was a shift, deep within the Rift. Something--or someone, rather--that had long been imprisoned finally managed to escape. His name was Caedus, and he reached out to the Senshi and Knights of Destiny City, asking them for help and offering them a door into Negaspace itself. However, his plan required that they collect energy from willing donors, harvested into crystals that Caedus provided.
In the time that followed, many Order Senshi and Knights were able to gather information on Caedus, which was collected in a database of knowledge about their extraterrestrial ally. Finally, he called them to him again, and took the crystals, using them to open a portal into the heart of the Negaverse. Some chose to stay behind with Caedus, but most of the Order force charged into the breach.
When they arrived, they were presented with three paths. The first led to the Castle itself, where the invaders rapidly found themselves in a pitched battle against the Negaverse's forces. They were able to successfully slay General-Queen Apatite, a massive blow. The second path led to the Negaverse's barracks. Although a small group of officers attempted to stop them, they were able to make their way to a storehouse of starseeds and rescue them from the Negaverse's clutches. The third path led to somewhere strange and unexpected: the ruins of the old Knight Academy. After defeating a massive ancient youma, the Senshi and Knights there were able to recover an ancient piece of the Code itself.
All three paths finally led back to the portal--but in their way stood a wall of youma, Negaverse agents, and the surviving General-Queen Laurelite. In the final, climactic battle, the forces of Order were able to slay the massive Greater Youma Laurelite called forth, sending it crashing down on her and seemingly leaving her dead. However, there were far too many monsters to destroy in time, and the portal closed before it could be reached. When all hope seemed lost, Cosmos herself arrived to teleport the forces of Order to safety on the Moon. A few weeks later, the Knights were called to Olympus, where they were able to purify the corrupted piece of the Code recovered from the Academy and leave it safe on the Moon.
With the Negaverse in shambles, Metallia herself called a meeting of her officers. She sent them on a quest--to gather materials from the Rift that she required. The first path had them hunting through a graveyard to find a crystallized youma bone. The second sent them deep into a labyrinth to recover a small, locked box. The third sent them into a dark cave to recover a strange crystal. When all three materials were delivered to her, Metallia revealed their purpose: a ritual that allowed her to imbue General-Queen Laurelite with the powers of the long-deceased Beryl, creating a new Queen of the Negaverse. She also introduced three new General-Sovereigns recruited from around the world: Axinite, the new head of Intelligence; Hessonite, the new head of Special Operations; and Lepidolite, new head of Infiltration and headmaster of Romano's Constitutional Haven, a new school in Destiny City created to be a recruiting ground for the Negaverse.
In April 2018, after a long recovery, Caedus finally left Earth--but has promised to return.
A few months later, beginning in mid-August 2018, people in Destiny City found that their mirrors were behaving strangely. It was first apparent to members of the Dark Mirror Court, who noticed a strange rippling, ad a call that pulled them into a part of Mirrorspace none had ever found before. They found themselves trapped, unable to leave, and the room began to crumble around them, and just before it fell apart around them, something—or someone—reached out and pulled them through the giant mirror in the strange room.
On the other side, they found themselves greeted by a strange woman, who introduced herself as Queen Altea, and assured them that they would be treated as her guests and welcomed in her home, the castle of the planet Solamnia. Although many of the Senshi distrusted her, they had little choice but to accept her hospitality, and they spent days attempting to explore her palace.
Over their time spent in her palace, the Senshi began to notice a horrifying transformation—those who consumed the Queen’s strange, crystalline food found that parts of their bodies were turning to crystal as well, like the bodies of her strange, eerily silent servants. Finally, someone discovered a hidden staircase that led them into the depths of the castle’s dungeon. Down there, they found a single, solitary prisoner—Taran, Altea’s fiancé. He informed the Court that Altea was mad, driven to darkness by a Chaos Seed that utterly consumed her and destroyed her world, leaving only her and her hollow crystal servants. He begged the Court to destroy her, before she could do more damage, but Altea herself appeared, furious with the Senshi for listening to Taran. Members of the Court attacked, and Altea fled.
Following in her wake, the Senshi were drawn to her library, where they were able to discover fragments of her diary that painted a grim picture. Taran was telling the truth. Solamnia had been devastated by plague, and Chaos had driven Altea mad. She wandered the universe, consuming other planets and turning their people into her monsters, backed by the power of Mirrorspace itself.
Meanwhile, in Destiny City, mirrors continued to behave strangely, and began sucking people in, pulling them into pockets of Mirrorspace. It was difficult to tell how long they were trapped for, but as the Dark Mirror progressed deeper into Altea’s castle, the pockets holding them shattered, and the prisoners were dumped into a strange magical gauntlet that seemed thoroughly determined to kill them.
The Mirror Senshi finally managed to find Altea, and in a pitched battle, they were able to destroy her. Meanwhile, the other prisoners escaped the gauntlet, finding themselves back in Destiny City. The Court had one more stop, though: a strange new realm known as the Mirrorscape, where they could build little individual islands for themselves. They weren’t quite homeworlds, but with time and effort, they might become homes.
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