Making his way down the hallway of the previously abandoned catacombs, Mephistopheles turned the corner and entered the room that was converted into his laboratory. Testing humanity was for wimps like Lucifer... Mephistopheles was much more into world conquest and chaos. His first plan of action was to test the waters, so to speak. After all, he liked that old saying, 'Keep your friends close, but your enemies even closer.' Once he knew about Earth's defenses, he could go about infiltrating the planet without much in his way.

Pausing every few steps, Mephistopheles checked the vassals within the individually placed test tubes. Each vassal had a tracking and recording device infused within themselves. The beings within were just about ready. After taking a few steps back to look at them all at once, Mephistopheles grinned with satisfaction.

"The time has come!" he cackled. Mephistopheles then conjured up the low-level magic needed to complete his Shifting Wraiths.

Upon giving his minions the magic needed to function, the vassals, which he had dubbed 'Shifting Wraiths,' emerged from their encasements and immediately left the catacombs to search the planet for information.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few days had passed since Gabrielle had gotten off the bus in the small city. She had talked to a manager in a cafe and managed to get herself temporarily hired until one of the permanent servers came back in a few weeks from maternity leave. Just as she went on her last fifteen-minute break, a co-worker who had the day off waved her over.

"Hey Natalie. What's up?" Gabrielle said as she went over to where the co-worker was sitting.

"I'm going on a blind date this Friday and quite frankly, Gabrielle, I'm a nervous wreck. I was wondering if you would like to come along as a possible lifeline? Y'know... just in case the guy turns out to be a real jerk."

"Sure. Where's it going to be?" Gabrielle asked.

"It's going to be at the fairgrounds. There's a harvest festival going on. Mostly outdoors stuff, grape stomping, pumpkin carving... y'know... typical autumn entertainment," Natalie mentioned.

"Sounds fun. Count me in!" Gabrielle smiled.

"Thanks... oh, and here. Since you're doing this for me, I have this admission ticket to get you in for free," Natalie said as she withdrew a spare ticket from her purse.

"No problem."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Friday came all too quickly and Gabrielle made her way into the semi-crowded fairgrounds. Within a sling-style backpack, she had a book to read in case she wasn't needed after all but didn't want to leave. It was beginning to look like she wasn't going to read the book after all with all that was going around.

'I see them.' Snowbelle's voice mentally announced from his aerial position. 'They're over near the crafts building.'

"Wonderful..." Gabrielle muttered as she made her way through the mass of people who were watching the grape stomping contest. As soon as she made it safely out of the throng, Gabrielle eyed some of the products being sold at booths near the crafts building as to not overly appear to be stalking Natalie and her date for any sign of a bad date in progress. However, several glances their way told Gabrielle that Natalie's previous fears appeared to be vastly unfounded and that she was having a better time than expected on her blind date.

An hour later, Gabrielle's backpack was nearly completely filled with incense sticks and various other trinkets. What she was going to do with most of the items, she wasn't quite sure, but it seemed right to buy them. Gabrielle then decided to have some fun and signed up to carve a pumpkin. Sitting down at the edge of some spread out newspaper, Gabrielle fashioned an outline on the pumpkin when a human-shaped shadow came over her.

"Could you please move? You're blocking my light," Gabrielle asked without even looking up.

"But it's the only way I can see what you're doing, babe," came the standoff-ish reply.

'Gabrielle, what is Natalie's date doing standing over near you instead of with Natalie?' Snowbelle mentally asked.

"Don't you already have a date?" Gabrielle asked as she finally looked up with a scowl across her face.

"Did... until I saw your perfect form..." he replied with a suave smirk.

"Flattery will get you nowhere with me, dearheart. Go back to your date with Natalie," Gabrielle replied before returning her attention to the pumpkin she was about to carve.

"And what if I don't?" the man replied.

'I have a little present for this guy...' Snowbelle uttered to Gabrielle.

"Suit yourself." Gabrielle shrugged. "I'm not to be blamed for anything that happens to you, including any and all treasures from the sky."

"What are you talking about?" he snapped. At that moment, Snowbelle flew from his perch and launched his 'treasure,’ which landed smack dab on the top of Natalie’s date’s head. His hands flew up to figure out what it was. "Eew!"

"I warned you," Gabrielle muttered as she glanced up to admire Snowbelle's handiwork, only to find the man growling as a dark swirling aura covered him. Before she knew what was happening, the man's body twisted and deformed into a tall and lanky Shifting Wraith.

"Oh, my…” Gabrielle said slowly in shock.

"Gabrielle!" Natalie exclaimed as she saw her co-worker just sitting there next to the Shifting Wraith. "Get away from that... thing!"

Not one to have to be told to do something twice, Gabrielle quickly scrambled away from the Shifting Wraith and grabbed Natalie's arm as she ran past. Both young women ran as fast as they could and took refuge in the women's restroom in the partially packed pavilion on the other side of the fairgrounds. Fortunately, the Shifting Wraith was still distracted by the 'treasure,' but it would not be for long.

'Transform when you can, but hurry. Some of the people need to be ushered out, otherwise they might be caught up in whatever this monster has plans to do. It's why I hate rubberneckers,' Snowbelle mentally instructed.

"So much for all of the excitement of a blind date, huh?" Natalie said between breaths as she leaned against a tiled wall.

"Yeah…" Gabrielle said, more out of concern for all the people sticking around and/or trying to get away from the Shifting Wraith, and she was stuck. She could not just transform in front of Natalie, could she?

"You're worried, aren't you..." Natalie said in more of a statement than a question. "Look, Gabrielle. If there is something you have to do, you shouldn't be afraid to do it. I know we all have our secrets, and some things should remain as such, but if it's the only thing preventing you from doing what's right, then something's got to give."

"You're right, Natalie." Gabrielle nodded. As she thrust the miniaturized Soul Staff into the air clasped within her right fist, Gabrielle exclaimed, "Savior Soul Power, Make Up!"

Within a matter of moments, Gabrielle transformed into Sailor Savior. Natalie gasped audibly.

"You see, I'm different. I am an angel on a mission. My name is Sailor Savior, Heavenly Soldier of God, and a complete newbie to this whole protector business," Sailor Savior said with a nervous chuckle as she shifted her weight from one bare foot to the other.

"A newbie? You've never fought a monster before?" Natalie asked.

"Erm... no." Sailor Savior was becoming even more nervous. "I had only found out about myself a few weeks ago...I have no idea when these things appear or what they look like since they're apparently able to shift their forms to look like normal humans. Only my guardian animal, my Boss and myself knows about my mission. It's also a bit freaky as well. My attentions are spread out a bit too thinly in some cases and in a jumble in other cases, if you catch my meaning."

"Well, you have a normal human on your side - me. But I believe you're needed to take care of that bastard of a blind date," Natalie said with a quirky smile.

Sailor Savior raised an eyebrow, smiled and nodded once before dashing out of the pavilion and back towards the Shifting Wraith.

"Hey, you! Big, bad and ugly!" Sailor Savior exclaimed as she hefted up an abandoned pumpkin and hurled it at the Shifting Wraith, who had been terrorizing some of the people who stayed behind to gawk.

The Shifting Wraith's attention turned to Sailor Savior as it brushed off bits of splattered pumpkin from its arm. Growling, the Shifting Wraith took two long steps toward her as he reached his full height of ten feet.

"What do you want, Shorty?" the Shifting Wraith bellowed at her.

"What I want is unimportant, though what I'm going to do is. Terrorizing people who are out for a good time is an offence that I am going to rectify. Sent to Earth by God Himself, I am the heavenly sailor suited soldier of righteousness, Sailor Savior. On behalf of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I will smite the wicked. REPENT!"

"Smite me?" the Shifting Wraith scoffed. "You and what army? I could squish you without batting an eye."

"I don't need an army to make a goliath of a ...whatever you are... fall," Sailor Savior replied.

"Don't make me laugh... There is no possible way that you can defeat me, one of Master Mephistopheles' Shifting Wraiths," the Shifting Wraith chuckled evilly.

"And to think if you were saved, you'd have had an individual name..." Sailor Savior said with mock pity.

At that, the Shifting Wraith roared in rage and practically flew at Sailor Savior. Sailor Savior easily dodged the flying tackle with a simple leap. Sailor Savior then summoned the Soul Staff and raised it over her head as she glared at the Shifting Wraith with determination.

"Redeeming Grace!" Sailor Savior exclaimed as she clasped her right hand onto the Soul Staff and briefly closed her eyes in concentration.

A beam of purifying light streamed through the focal point of the Soul Staff and hit the Shifting Wraith. Caught off guard, the Shifting Wraith writhed in momentary pain before disintegrating into apparent nothingness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"What in blue blazes?!" Mephistopheles said in a knee-jerk response as if he had just been slapped across the face.

A sudden impulse sent Mephistopheles off in the direction of the invisible-to-mortal-eyes homing beacon that was left where the first of his Shifting Wraiths had disintegrated. A quick investigation of the holographic recording device integrated into the homing beacon told him what he wanted to know. There was a defense force on this planet after all. Though it seamed that that force of one was quite new and inexperienced.

"There is only one of her... and many of my Shifting Wraiths. This Sailor Savior cannot be in more than one place at once, and so she should not be able to pose a major threat to my plans. Still, I should be careful not to underestimate her. For now, I'll keep spreading my Wraiths across the planet to do my bidding until the time is right for me to conquer Earth," Mephistopheles muttered aloud to himself as he paced back and forth between two buildings in the now-deserted fairgrounds.

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