Chapter 19: Art Attack
Abra Vinzola belongs to Yagimatsu
"Neo," Queen Salem said as she looked down at her general who was bowed before her, "I put my trust in you. So, I trust that you wouldn't possibly have returned to me empty-handed."
Neo said nothing, and her thoughts remained silent.
"I see," Salem said, "then explain to me why we only have one rainbow crystal and the sailor scouts have two."
Once again Neo was silent.
"Well perhaps it's time I found someone else to handle this job. What do you think?"
This time the mute woman raised her head, "no majesty. I can get this job done I promise you. Watch, I'll find the next crystal carrier right now."
She summoned the the dark crystal and held over her head. "Dark crystal I command you! Show me another one of the holders of the rainbow crystals."
In the crystal's reflection she saw the face of a teenage girl with strawberry blonde hair and violet eyes appear.
"This human shall be my next target. And this time I'll get the crystal for you my queen."
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In Vale it was a crisp, cool autumn afternoon, Ruby was sitting on a bench waiting for Jenni so they could hang out. While she was waiting Zwei and she were discussing why Tuxedo Mask had taken the orange rainbow crystal. However, they both seemed to have very different theories.
"No way Zwei, I don't think that just because Tuxedo Mask kept a rainbow crystal that it means he's our enemy. Maybe he just wants to keep it extra safe." Ruby said
"I just think it's weird that's all." Zwei sighed.
"Ruby!" Jenni yelled as she raced up to her friend.
"Hey Jen so what's the big surprise?"
Jenni smirked, "you'll just have to follow me to find out. Let's go."
With that she raced off with her best friend on her heels, but she didn't notice that the crescent moon wand had fallen out of a hole in her backpack.
Zwei quickly leaped off the park bench and grabbed the wand with his paws, seconds before it could fall into the river.
"She didn't even notice the wand fell out." He muttered, "that's just great..."
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"I want you to see these awesome new paintings that just got here." Jenni said to Ruby as they stood outside an art museum.
Jenni led her friend into the gallery and pointed out several beautiful paintings. There was one of a prince with his arms spread out protecting his princess, one of several statues in a moonlit garden, and one of a gorgeous silver palace.
"Wow these are incredible..." Ruby said.
"Hey ladies enjoying the paintings?" Ugine asked, walking up to them.
"Hey Ugi," Jenni said, "yeah I was just about to show Ruby my favorite piece here."
The wolf faunus led the two to the largest painting in the gallery. It depicted a princess with short red and black hair wearing a gorgeous white ballgown. Her head was bowed and she wore an expression that looked both serene and somber all at once.
"This one is called 'Self Portrait as a Moon Princess,'" Jenni explained.
Ruby did a double take, "moon princess?!" "No way," she thought, "could whoever painted this be the moon princess we've been looking for? I'll have to tell the others later."
Ugine got closer, "hey Rubes this princess almost looks like you."
"Yeah right," the redhead laughed, "but hey you guys do you know how I could get in touch with the artist?"
Ugine shook his head, "I doubt it. Golden Girl, that's the name of the artist, never comes to see her work in public."
"Well that's a shame," Jenni said
Ruby nodded but then something in one of the other paintings caught her eye. She looked at another painting of a prince and princess dancing together.
"That prince he looks...familiar."
Outside Oscar was walking by the art museum and he just happened to notice the same painting which was being used as a graphic on a poster advertising the art gallery.
"No way!" He said in shock, "the princess in this picture...she looks like the one in my dream!"
He was so busy staring at the poster that he didn't notice a large group leaving the museum, or the young woman who was pushed right into him.
The girl fell over, dropping all of her notebooks in the process.
"Oh let me help you!" Oscar said before picking up the books and offering his hand to the woman.
She gladly took his hand and looked up at him with her big purple eyes only to let out a loud gasp.
"You, you're perfect! The perfect subject for my painting."
Oscar was stunned as the young woman began walking around him all while commenting on his physique.
"Hey Ruby isn't that Oscar out there?" Jenni asked as she noticed the scene unfolding outside.
Ruby followed her gaze and scowled, "yeah it is. But who's that girl he's with? Doesn't matter I'm gonna go find out."
And with that she headed outside.
"Ruby wait...oh brother," Jenni said with an eye roll.
"Please pose for me," the woman begged Oscar.
"I don't even know who you are," Oscar said.
"Oh umm I-I'm a local artist," she stammered out.
"And what's going on here?" Ruby asked as she slid between the pair.
"Nothing Red leave us alone," Oscar said.
The other young woman looked at Ruby and gasped, "you...both of you...you're perfect! Please! I need you two to model for me!"
Ruby looked surprised and she shared a glance with Oscar, just what was this girl up to?
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The next afternoon Oscar and Ruby arrived at the artist's home.
After Oscar knocked, the artist, who had introduced herself to the pair earlier as Abra Vinzola, answered the door.
"Oh good you're here," Abra said, "C'mon in."
The two headed in and Oscar sat down on the couch in the living room.
"Let me just get my supplies and we can start," Abra said before dashing off to her room.
Ruby began looking around the living room and her eyes fell on a stack of paintings.
"Wait..these look like the ones from the museum yesterday."
Noticing the other young woman had returned she spoke up, "hey Abra are you by any chance related to Golden Girl? These look like her paintings."
Abra sighed and set her art supplies down, "no...you see Golden Girl doesn't actually exist. She's an alias I made up. When I first started putting my art out in public I went by my real name. But I didn't do so well, but then I created a new series as Golden Girl and it was a hit."
"But doesn't it bother you that people don't know who you really are?" Ruby asked.
The strawberry blonde shook her head, "as long as I can sell my paintings and keep making art I'm happy. Anyway let's start. Can you sit next to Oscar, Ruby?"
Ruby leaped back, "me? Sit next to him? No way!"
Oscar scoffed, "my thoughts exactly."
"Hey!"
"This isn't really my thing anyway. I think I'm gonna leave," Oscar said before standing up.
Abra rushed over to him, "oh please don't go! I can work fast I promise! It's just...I've had this idea for a piece for a long time but I needed the right models. And you two are perfect."
The young man sighed. "Ok...if you're sure."
He sat back down and Ruby sat next to him.
As Abra began sketching Ruby carefully looked over at the young man next to her.
"Huh...well I guess Oscar is kinda handsome. If not for that terrible attitude I might almost be attracted to him," She thought.
Oscar looked over at Ruby out of the corner of his eye. "She is pretty, when she's not being overly loud or klutzy," He thought before he chuckled to himself.
The two then realized they were staring at each other and quickly looked away.
Soon enough Abra was putting on the final touches of her painting's initial sketch.
"Can I take a peek?" Ruby asked as she walked over and looked over Abra's shoulder.
Abra nodded and turned the canvas to her, which showed a picture of a prince and princess waltzing together at a ball.
Ruby's eyes widened and she smiled, "that's so pretty!"
She then looked at the artist, "so Abra...what do you think about when you're drawing? Anything special?"
Abra put her pencil down, "I guess I just think about making people happy."
The redhead nodded, "and the ideas you get for your paintings, what inspires you?"
"Well mostly the ideas come to me in my dreams, the images are so vivid I just have to make artwork of them you know?"
'Her dreams...' Ruby thought, "and you're really ok with making such beautiful artwork without people really knowing who you are and giving the credit to someone else?"
The strawberry blonde nodded. "Yeah. It's not that bad really, like I told you earlier, as long as people like what I'm doing then it's ok."
"I agree with Abra, it's not about being popular as long as you're happy with what you're doing. If you ask me having millions of adoring fans is overrated." Oscar said from the couch
Ruby picked up a picture from Abra's stack of artwork, "oh yeah? You really wouldn't want people knowing if you painted something as nice as this?" She turned the artwork to face him.
Oscar turned to look at it and nearly fell out of his seat in shock.
"Yikes I didn't mean for you to react that way!" Ruby said.
Oscar took the canvas from her hands and stared at it. The painting was of the same prince and princess all of Abra's artwork featured and in this particular one the princess was handing a small object, a star locket, to the prince as they stared lovingly into each other's eyes.
"Oh that piece is called 'Till We Meet Again," Abra explained, "see the princess is giving the prince her star locket so he always has a memento of their love. It's based on a legend I heard a long time ago."
"A star locket?" Ruby asked as she thought about the necklace Tuxedo Mask had dropped during their battle with Neo a few weeks prior.
She stared at the painting, "you know. I'll bet that necklace must play a beautiful song."
Oscar nodded, "yeah...but probably only for them, since it's a token of their love and all."
Ruby looked over at the young man, he seemed so confident in what he had just said, it was strange.
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An hour later Abra had finished up drawing for the day so she offered to walk Ruby home, after the girls said goodbye to Oscar they headed to Ruby's house.
"Thanks again for agreeing to model for me, you and Oscar have such great chemistry you know that? I can't wait to finish the painting and get it to my exhibit," Abra said with a smile.
Ruby nodded, "of course, it was fun, but I am a little nervous about people seeing my face in a painting."
"Don't worry I'll make sure you look perfect."
"Wow look at this flyer, Golden Girl is really talented," Ruby and Abra heard a pair of teen girls who was gathered outside a shop say.
Ruby nudged her friend knowingly but Abra merely blushed and hid her face behind her hair.
"They're right you know," Ruby told her, "you are a great artist you just have to believe in yourself."
She then waved goodbye to Abra, "I gotta go but think about what I said ok?" With that she ran off.
Abra waved back before stealing one more glance at her poster, "...believe in myself..."
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As soon as Ruby made it home she was greeted to the sight of Zwei sitting on the welcome mat with the crescent moon wand in front of him.
"Hey Zwei what do you got there?" The silver eyed girl asked.
"Oh funny you mention that, it's the crescent moon wand. Remember the very important magical item I gave you for safe keeping?!" Zwei snapped.
Ruby rolled her eyes, "I know what it is I meant why is it here and not in my backpack?"
"Well it was in your backpack. Until you ran off and it fell out. You didn't even stop to look for it."
Ruby blushed a bit, "oh...sorry Zwei. Are you angry?"
Zwei sighed, "well let's put it this way, out of the four scouts you're probably the most likely to lose the wand. So I don't know what I was expecting."
The redhead narrowed her eyes, "excuse me?! Why are you always comparing me to the others anyway! It was an honest mistake!"
With that she picked the wand off and stomped off.
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"Stupid Zwei," Ruby muttered as she kicked a stone on the sidewalk, "if everyone is so confident I'm gonna lose the wand I may as well let one of the other scouts have it, it would save everyone the trouble of worrying whether or not I'll protect it."
Just then the wand began beeping and flashing with a red light.
"That's the rainbow crystal alert. I gotta find the carrier first before the negaverse does!"
She held the wand out in front of her and began following the alarm.
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"What do you want from me?" Abra asked as Neo stood in front of her.
Neo stepped over the broken glass that had once been part of the young woman's living room window. The negaverse general had smashed it in order to get into the house.
"Are you an art thief? Here for my paintings?" Abra asked.
Don't worry dear I'll make this quick and painless. Well mostly painless," Neo said as she held out the dark crystal, "come to me rainbow crystal!"
Abra doubled over in pain as her chest pulsated with light. Within seconds the green rainbow crystal was pulled from her heart.
Abra then transformed into an angel-like creature wearing a pink toga and a golden laurel around her head. She stretched out her wings and smirked at Neo.
"Finally, I can bring a shadow warrior back to Salem," Neo thought.
"Abra..." Ruby said in shock as she watched from outside, "Neo turned her into a monster. Well I guess if she's a shadow warrior then she's not the moon princess." She shook her head "get it together Ruby who cares about that right now?!"
She quickly pulled out her scroll and contacted the other scouts to let them know what was going on.
"And now it's time to turn Neo to moon dust. Moon prism power!"
Her locket glowed and turned her into Sailor Moon.
Meanwhile Neo and Abra had made their way out of Abra's house and were heading across the street.
"Hold it right there!" Sailor Moon shouted, "you will not take this girl back to the negaverse Neo."
"You want to see my skills sailor girl?" Abra asked. "Fine by me."
She plucked one of the feathers from her wings and it elongated. Abra then tossed the feather into the air and used her finger to draw with it. A large boulder materialized and tried to flatten Sailor Moon. The heroine barely rolled out of the way as the rock crashed into the ground.
"Do it again! Kill her before the other scouts get here!" Neo ordered.
Abra nodded and began drawing more and more boulders.
Sailor Moon attempted to dodge them but didn't realize the rocks were creating a wall trapping her in place.
A final boulder was about to squash her when suddenly Tuxedo Mask jumped in and picked her up bridal style before jumping over the rock wall.
"Thanks Tuxedo Mask," Sailor Moon said
"Don't mention it," the caped hero said, "now I need to get that crystal from Neo. Can you handle the shadow warrior?"
She nodded and with that Tuxedo Mask ran after Neo.
Sailor Moon turned to Abra, "Abra please listen to me. It's me Ruby. I'm Sailor Moon. I'm your friend don't you remember?"
Abra pulled another feather from her wing and drew several cobras. Within seconds of appearing the snakes slithered toward the heroine.
"Ok guess not," Sailor Moon said before backing up.
The snakes all jumped up to attack her but before they could there was a shout of "Mars fire ignite!" And a column of fire burned the cobras to ash.
"You guys made it thank goodness," Sailor Moon said as she turned to see her fellow sailor scouts.
"Sailor Moon go get that crystal from Neo. We'll handle this," Sailor Mercury said.
Sailor Moon nodded and ran off to do just that.
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"I won't say it again Neo," Tuxedo Mask said, "give me that crystal. Now."
"And what if I don't huh?" Neo asked as she casually tossed the crystal between her hands.
She raised her hand and summoned a storm of pink, brown, and white petals and they all swirled around the hero making it difficult to see.
"Now I'm going to finish you," Neo said as she pulled a rapier sword from thin air.
"Oh no! Tuxedo Mask look out!" Sailor Moon shouted.
She took off her tiara which promptly turned it into a discus, "moon tiara magic!"
She threw at at the negaverse general, knocking the sword from her hand.
Neo growled in frustration and this moment of distraction caused the flower petal storm to subside.
"Thanks Sailor Moon," Tuxedo Mask said
He raised his cane to strike Neo, but as his weapon made contact with her, her body shattered like glass. It was yet another one of her illusions.
"I hate when she does that," he muttered angrily as he realized this meant the villain had gotten away with yet another crystal.
"Are you ok?" Sailor Moon asked as she placed her tiara back on her head.
"Yes. Thanks to you. Though I regret to say Neo got the rainbow crystal."
"Well you're safe...that's all that matters," the heroine said. But as she stepped forward something fell from her skirt pocket. It was the star locket she had been holding onto.
When the locket hit the ground it opened up and began playing its beautiful song.
Both Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon reached for the necklace causing their hands to accidentally touch.
"Oh sorry," Sailor Moon said as she pulled her hand back, "do you want this back? You dropped it in a fight earlier."
Tuxedo Mask thought back to the painting of the princess giving the locket to her prince.
"No...you should hold onto it. I'll probably just lose it again anyway." He picked up the locket and placed it in Sailor Moon's palm.
"Did you get this from the Moon Princess? Do you know who she is?" The heroine asked.
Tuxedo Mask thought for a moment, but then sighed, "no. At least I don't think so. I don't remember to be honest."
"Hey um by the way. The crystal you got earlier may I have it?" Sailor Moon asked.
"No."
"No? But I thought you got that crystal for us."
"Those crystals are part of my own personal mission Sailor Moon. And you should know I want the one you have too and I'll do whatever it takes to get it." The caped hero said.
"But I thought your mission was the help the sailor scouts!" Sailor Moon snapped.
"I only help you so the negaverse doesn't win and take over the universe. Remember that." Tuxedo Mask retorted.
With that he pulled his cape around himself and disappeared into the night.
"Tuxedo Mask..." Sailor Moon murmured.
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"Jupiter thunder crash!" Sailor Jupiter shouted as a bolt of lightning struck Abra paralyzing her.
Sailor Moon ran over to her friends.
"Hey did you get the crystal?" Sailor Mars asked.
The moon heroine shook her head sadly.
"Well we can deal with that later. For now you need to heal Abra."
Sailor Moon nodded and summoned the crescent moon wand.
She held the wand up before drawing a large circle of moonlight around herself, "moon healing activation!"
The circle of moonlight encased the shadow warrior inside it, destroying it but also returning Abra to her normal self.
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A couple days later Oscar and Ruby were walking to the art museum but were shocked to see Abra's exhibit had a "closed" sign outside of it.
"Hey Abra we got your message what's going on?" Ruby asked as she and Oscar walked inside.
"Oh hi guys," Abra said, "I had to close the exhibit for a little while. There were some new paintings I wanted to add. Like this one."
She pulled the tarp off an artwork revealing the painting Ruby and Oscar had been posing for.
"It looks great," Ruby said smiling widely.
"Yeah. Good job," Oscar echoed.
Ruby's silver eyes then fell on a painting in a nearby corner. It was Abra's moon princess self portrait sitting on the floor. Ruby looked up where the painting had once been hanging to find a new self portrait of Abra herself there.
"When did you do this?!" The girl asked in shock.
"Oh a little bit ago. I thought about what you said and realized I do want people to know the real me. So Golden Girl is no more. From now on my paintings are done by Abra Vinzola," Abra said with a smile.
Her friend gave her a hug, "that's great Abra. I'm happy for you."
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