In a dimly lit room, a pair of voices whisper in the black. The sound of wings flapping could be faintly audible in the place where the two presences were resting.

"The master has finally awakened..." one says, a feminine voice whispers. The other squawks in approval, as it's own voice rises.

"Yes...I regret that we didn't awaken sooner to help her. But to get to Earth from here will require the last of our energy, we will need to step into a lower state for awhile to regain our full potential, but around Lady Mars we will regain it in due time."

"Then let it be so...we descend to Earth now."


In the evening sky, an abrupt streak flies over Ueno, just as abruptly crashing into the ground on the outskirts of the district. Deep in the woods, there would be a glowing, red sphere left idle and defenseless initially. To a certain young girl, there would be an intense calling and drive to come find them. Something as if trying to summon her with all desperation and need to get to their location.

However, the presence would gradually begin to attract the presence of wild youma infected beasts in the distance. While it would flicker and try to conceal itself and it's energy presence, it would not last forever without discovery. There were a few Ueno residents fluttering about, talking about the intensely bright shooting star in the sky, but nobody wanted to venture out in the night to look into what it was.

Yuki had been on the train headed home, taking a brief nap, when all of a sudden something caused her to wake up and feel oddly alert despite her initial sleepy state. It was difficult to describe, but all of a sudden Yuki felt as though something was trying to call out to her. Frowning, she looked out the window, trying to figure out what was bothering her. Had she forgotten something? Well there was the whole schoolwork thing which she had been neglecting more and more lately….but this actually felt like it was something important.

Although she couldn’t say what compelled her, at the next stop Yuki quickly got off. Eventually she switched trains and found herself headed towards Ueno. There were times when Yuki simply felt compelled to this area of the city…but this time it felt different and the urge was much stronger.

When her train arrived, Yuki was admittedly not sure what to do next. She had chosen to come here rather impulsively, and the night air was cold. Over her uniform she wore her typical red coat along with a warm black scarf and hat. A gym bag was strapped around her shoulder along with her regular school bag. When she got off the train, Yuki heard a few people talking about seeming some sort of shooting star and another person arguing it must be a meteor of some kind. Intrigued and wondering if this was some sort of covenant related incident, she asked the residents where they had seen this light and one of them pointed her in the direction towards the park.

Yuki sometimes visited the place when she needed a quiet spot to think, so she knew the way. It might have been because it was starting to be getting late….but something about the area tonight made Yuki feel uneasy. Cautiously and quietly she began to look around as she came upon the park, wondering if there really was anything here.

As Yuki began to enter the general vicinity of where the crash landed, a glowing mark on her forehead would flash briefly, freaking out an older man in the area whom inadvertently witnessed it. Before others could notice it, the symbol had faded, perhaps the event entirely unknown to the young woman. There would be a glow in the distance, past the boundaries of the park that Yuki was in and well into the wood.

The howl of a creature could be heard in the distance as well. A subtle urging would compel Yuki to charge forward to the site of the crash.

At the crash site, the sphere would find itself accosted by a yeti-looking creature. Several glowing gems and two faces in the shoulders of the monster would reveal it's unnatural nature, if not freakish. It would try to approach the orb, but bolts of flame would push it back when the unnatural presence. The yeti youma would become enraged and begin to grab a small tree with a fearsome howl, and begin uprooting it. The sound and presence noticable even at a distance.

When Yuki inevitably notices and heads in the direction, she would find a ten foot wide stream between her and the other side in the direction of the landing site. The water was frigid this time of night and would likely cause hypothermia if Yuki tried to cross the four foot deep swath. The area was moderately wooded with a number of tall trees reaching into the night sky, while there were also large chunks of ice that jutted out from the ground and banks partially over, but the stability of these were questionable at best.

The beast roars in the ever closing distance, while the urging within Yuki's soul seemed to plea for help.

It wasn’t long before Yuki heard some terrible howl and oddly she found herself running towards the sound, deeper into the woods. It was hard to explain...but she somehow knew something important was here and that she needed to hurry. As she ran, the howling sound continued, accompanied with the sound of trees being physically uprooted.

Great…this was turning into one of those nights.

However, before she could reach the source of the disturbance, Yuki found a river blocking her path with no foreseeable away around it. Pausing for a moment she thought….though time it seemed was of the essence. Glancing around briefly to make sure nobody else was nearby, Yuki grabbed her wand pen from her pocket and raised it.

”Mars Power Make-up!”

After transforming, Sailor Mars took a few steps back. Even she might need a running start for this one….not to mention that water was sure to be freezing even for her. With a yell she sprinted forward as fast as she could. ”Fire Dash!” she yelled just as she was leaping forward giving her a powerful burst of forward momentum to (hopefully) make it over to the other side. Assuming she was successful, Yuki tumbled over on the other side of the bank.

Yuki would have stopped to appreciate such an accomplishment, but another roar reminded her why she was here and she quickly got up and began running again.

When she came upon the scene, Yuki genuinely thought she might have discovered the actual Yeti…..until she remembered that she was in Japan…..and that thing was totally a youma. What it was doing exactly was harder to determine, but it didn’t seem good. It was almost as though that red orb was pleading her for help.

”Hey ugly! I don’t know what you’re up to exactly, but I think you’ve caused enough damage tonight.” Assuming she got the thing’s attention, Sailor Mars took a fighting stance with raised fist, ready for the creature’s attack.

Sailor Mars would barely make the pass, falling just short on the edge and her feet in the water for a moment, giving her a rather uncomfortable wet pair of boots to have to endure with for now. The rest of the way to the landing site would be unimpeded until Yuki saw the yeti with the tree raised. The beast would swing the tree branch that it had upon the orb, causing a violent reaction from the orb as several bursts of flame fire off at the Yeti to repel it. The orb would have a familiar warmth to Yuki, almost as if an extension of herself could be said of it. With the magical business, who really knew?

The creature backs up as it is singed and caught on fire momentarily before it fades from a frosty aura emtited from the creature. As Yuki approaches, it bangs it's chest with a primal rage and roars, causing a breath of unnatural frost energy to emit at Yuki. The snow hardens to ice on the ground and the branches in the way are instantly covered in the sheets of ice as the bulk of the attack focuses on Yuki.

When the yeti youma tried to hit the orb with the tree, it almost felt as if it were trying to hit a part of Yuki and she immediately knew she needed to protect whatever that thing was. The roar that the youma emitted caused Yuki to cover her ears for a moment until she saw the frost attack emitted in her direction.

Sailor Mars managed to make a last minute dodge out of the way, leaping out of the way and rolling onto the ground. She quickly tried to stand back up, covering her arms as she shivered slightly. As if it wasn’t cold enough already….

”Guess it’s time to heat things up….” With that she suddenly began sprinting, trying to get behind the youma to try and find some sort of blind spot if possible.

”Shooting flame kick!” With a yell, Sailor Mars launched a large fireball in the youma’s direction.

As the fireball launches at the Yeti, the creature turns to face it and releases another breath, the powerful gale and frost causing the fireball to burst harmlessly mid-air. The Yeti roars ferociously, pounding the ground and causing the trees to shake and begin to fall, a few of which begin to collapse in the direction of Yuki.

The red sphere in the crater begins to glow brightly however, and a beam launches up, arcing toward Yuki's position, engulfing her in red, familiar energy that was the same as her own normal Mars energy. This causes a pair of wings of flame to manifest on her back, which after the initial awkwardness will allow her to fly for short bursts of time, but how long these wings will last remains to be seen...

There was a brief moment of panic, when the youma neutralized her attack as if it were no more than a minor nuisance.

Well that didn’t bode well.

Before Yuki could react however, the following uproar from the Yeti knocked down a tree that began to fall on top of her. As she tried to leap out of the way, Sailor Mars found herself suddenly engulfed in a familiar energy that felt like an ignited flame within her soul. Yuki was becoming more familiar with this feeling since her training with Makoto-sensei, and although she wasn’t sure what was going on she embraced the feeling as she managed to narrowly avoid being knocked down by the falling tree. It took her a few more moments to register that along with the boost of energy, she suddenly had the temporary ability to fly.

”Woah…”

After the initial shock wore off of having a pair of flaming wings on her back, Yuki quickly regained her bearings. Her entire body felt highly charged with a burning sort of energy and she found herself smirking confidently as she looked back towards the Youma.

She could get use to this feeling.

With a motivating yell, Yuki then leaped up high into the air, the wings on her back seemingly giving her extra lift as she soared over top of the youma.

”Shooting flame kick!” Yuki practically did a mid-air back flip as she launched another fireball directly overhead of the youma.

The Yeti, unable to move quickly enough to evade this fire blast takes it along the upper back as the flame singes it and sets it on fire. The beast roars and rolls about trying to put out the flame, the pain inevitably causing the creature to retreat, crashing through the woods out of a survival instinct: this wasn't an intelligent youma that had a conscious plan, but rather a wild one that was acting on instinct.

The crater is left unmolested now: when Yuki approaches she will find a red sphere of energy. Upon contact with the sphere, the warm energy will retreat into Yuki's body, adding to her personal energy reserve, while a small, crystal 'nest' sits with two eggs below. The eggs seemed like any normal bird's eggs, though the circumstances clearly indicated supernatural origin.

Yuki alighted gently back onto the ground, blinking a few times in surprise at the youma’s reaction. She supposed it was more like a wild animal, compared to other youma she had fought, but still hadn’t expected it to run off like that. For a moment she considered possibly running after it…it might not be a good idea to let it just run around…but Yuki wasn’t sure if she’d be able to and that wasn’t the reason she had come here.

Looking over to the actual reason, Yuki approached the glowing red sphere. Slowly, she reached out to it, somewhat startled by the sudden intake of energy into her body. It felt very warm and Yuki felt revitalized. However a slight look of confusion crossed her face when she eyed what was left.

”Bird eggs?” Gently, and somewhat hesitantly, Yuki reached out to touch one of them. Whatever was in them was alive…she could sense that much. Although the reason was unknown, clearly she had been called out here to these eggs. Knowing what she needed to do, Yuki gently picked up the small crystal nest. She stayed transformed in order to make it back over the river, this time it was much easier with the help of her “wings”.

Once she made it over though, Yuki glanced around to make sure the youma had truly left before de-transforming. She then took off her black scarf she was wearing, using it to cushion her bag, before carefully placing the small crystal nest into her sport’s bag before making her way out of the park.

The Yeti showed no signs of returning to re-engage the Mars Senshi. In fact, it would seem almost too peaceful now that the Yeti was gone. Perhaps his presence merely scared everything else off that would have originally been in the area. Who could say? The dull quiet would be refreshing.

As Yuki traversed the gap back to the other side of the river, the wings would begin to falter just slightly, likely causing a panic for the Mars Senshi for a moment, before she landed. The eggs would seemingly be safe, stable, and otherwise suitable for Yuki's transport to leave the area. When Yuki would begin to approach the direction she came from, she would hear sirens: the loud commotion had brought out the authorities.

Yuki could at this point decide to either try to emerge from the woods casually as if nothing happened, or seek an alternative route. There seemed to be a few options around her: some older buildings in the distance might offer her a way to get around the small crowd of people that would be congregating around the military vehicles. However the area in particular was known to locals as being a fairly 'shady' section of the town. Alternatively, she could try to go back through the woods and back into Ueno from a different angle.

As she worked her way back, the sound of people and the flashing police siren lights poking through the trees made Yuki halt. Crouching down low behind a tree, she peered over to where the crowd was gathering, likely in response to all that earlier commotion. There even appeared to be military vehicles already.

Normally Yuki might consider playing some sort of act, like how she was just taking a walk when she heard the noise and then went running. All she had to do was run out there, out of breath and scared. However Yuki glanced over at her bag and decided against this idea. She didn’t want to risk having the military possibly searching her bags.

Looking around, Yuki instead decided to try and sneak around the group. There were some older looking buildings not too far off that looked like they would allow Yuki to emerge from the forest undetected. Yuki then made her way in that direction, taking care not to be noticed.

As Yuki traversed into the shadier part of Ueno, she would find that the lightning was inadequate and the buildings were poorly maintained. Some were even set to be demolished due to the poor condition and the lack of need. A few people who otherwise might have been homeless may be lurking in the darkness of the buildings, not that Yuki would likely want to search within them.

The scent of the garbage would waft in the air, at certain points almost certainly threatening to overwhelm Yuki's sense of smell. Further ahead would be a man in torn clothes huddled over a barrel fire. Past him about fifty feet further was the exit to the street, but she would have to pass the man to access that point.

Behind Yuki, she would hear a low growl at a certain point, the shape of a canine becoming visible once she passes one of the piles of trash and rubble. The only other path forward would lead to a nine foot high chain linked fence that led to another split in an alley.

Upon observing her new surroundings, Yuki stayed alert, hoping to just get through the area quickly. The smell was pretty bad, and Yuki was fairly certain that if she turned back the growling dog she heard may very well attack. Feeling adequately spooked at this point, she quickly made her way down the alley way towards the direct exit out onto to the street, passing the presumably homeless man in the process.

When Yuki decided to run down the direct path, the man seems to ramble as she passes by. The man was withered and clearly dis-sheveled on both a physical and a mental level, though the extent of each was subject to interpretation. He wore a black sock cap that was torn, pulled over half of his face where one eye was sticking out of it while the other eye was blank and white as if blind.

"So speaketh the red light of the heavens, that the goddess of war returns from the abyss. When ever forth does the shadow come, will the flame burn evil, or burn indiscriminately? When Inner hate and resentment grows past the point of being able to be contained, what more will you seek? The stone speaks to me...calling out to me from within the tainted Earth of Ueno!" he says, then laughing, cackling when Yuki went by.

At the street level, there would be no obstruction to Yuki finding her way back to a more civilized and 'safe' area. Sirens would be in the distance and the sight of flashing light could be observed. The buildings would gradually turn from withered to more well maintained as Yuki would likely go back the way that she originally came. A slight movement might be noticeable within the bag, as the eggs seem to tremble. In a silent moment, she just might here the chirping sound of a young bird.

As Yuki would depart, the old man would shout out once more.

"Heed the words of the Keeper of Time: When the Shining Red of Purity and Miracles is unleashed, salvation comes from the heart. Only soothing the raging heart will subdue the monster powered by miracles" he says, cackling a little. If and when Yuki were to turn back around, the man would be gone, with no footprints or trace that he was ever there in the first place.