“That’s right, humans. Kneel before Turboost!” declared a purple-skinned, humanoid Youma with a car grille for a chest plate and exhaust pipes mounted on its back. It advanced on a group of frightened civilians, backing them into one of the mall’s many fast-food restaurants, where they cowered behind chairs and tables.

“Please, no!” a mother cried as the monster raised its arms in her direction, turning, and shielding her two small children with her body.

The Youma’s exhaust pipes began to rev menacingly like a racer waiting on a green light, and it taunted, “It’s time to surrender your energy!”

The children cried out in fear. However, the noise of the engine ceased abruptly. Noticing this, the mother turned her head and surveyed their assailant from the feet upward. The monster’s arms had dropped to its sides, and its face was frozen in an expression of surprise. There was a smoking, gaping hole in its forehead. The woman flinched as the monster crumpled to the floor and the purple parts of it seemed to dissolve into the air.

Framed in the restaurant doorway, beyond what was now a heap of scrap metal, a sailor-suited young woman with shoulder-length blonde hair stood with her clasped hands outstretched as if pointing a gun. “It’s okay now,” she said quietly.

“Sailor V?” the woman spoke with incredulity. “You’re a real person?”

“As real as they come!” said the masked hero with a wink. “Now, everybody, stay quiet and follow me. I’ll get you to the nearest exit.”

The flabbergasted woman picked up her smallest child and took her daughter by the hand. “I told you she was real, Mommy!” whispered the little girl as she wiped the tears from her eyes.

The group of ten or so followed their savior without question as she guided them along the second floor of the mall, looking around corners as she went, and signaling for more civilians to join them from their hiding places in the passing stores. Their silent journey was interspersed with the screams and protestations of those in the vicinity who were not so lucky.

Suddenly an explosion sounded, followed by raucous laughter, and a new plume of smoke billowed up over the balustrade from the floors below. Evidently, the monster’s allies were enjoying themselves. The large group let out mutters of panic but covered their mouths when Sailor V turned to them with her finger to her lips.

“Okay, which way?” she spoke softly into her wrist communicator.

“I’ve opened a new door at the exit to your left. There aren’t any enemies in that direction,” Mercury’s voice replied with a note of frustration. “This barrier is a real problem. It’s even interfering with the building’s safety protocols!”

“That explains why the sprinklers aren’t going off,” Sailor V responded. “Try to fix it. If this place burns down, the victims who have already had their energy drained will be in trouble.”

“I’m on it, but it’s not easy to do on the move while directing you and creating the doors. It’s going to take a while.”

Upon arriving at the mall, Ami and Minako had transformed and headed for the vast rooftop. They weren’t surprised to find it burning and billowing copious amounts of smoke from several points. However, they were surprised to find a faint, red, magical barrier of sorts enveloping the entire building. Despite being translucent, it was solid, blocking their entry, sealing the exits, and trapping the mallgoers inside.

After noting that the smoke was passing through the barrier, she analyzed its physical makeup with her computer and was able to generate a signal capable of disrupting it, creating a small entry point. Even so, she realized that their initial plan to evacuate citizens had hit a snag. Ami would need to create more doors from the outside if they wanted to lower their chances of discovery or interruption.

With this in mind, they split up. While Sailor V stealthily entered the mall to protect the civilians inside and assess the situation more closely, Sailor Mercury began traversing the outer edges of the hulking facility, all the while providing support using her small, hand-held device.

Ami tutted in annoyance as she leaped through the air above the mall on the way to her next location, keying code into her computer as she went. Shuffling between analyzing the suspiciously powerful barrier, monitoring the energy signatures inside, and trying to gain control of the mall’s systems was no small task, especially on the move. It would have been much easier using the sophisticated computer in her lab with its giant screen, but with only two of them in fighting form, that wasn’t an option.

This thought made Ami briefly second-guess her decision to sedate Rei. Having Sailor Mars on their side at a time like this would surely have made a difference. Was she gambling with people’s lives for the sake of her big plan? No. Ami dismissed that idea. What she was doing was for the greater good. In the end, it would all be worth it—if she survived the night.

On rounding the final corner of the path leading to the nearest of Ami’s doors, Minako came upon tens, maybe hundreds, of unconscious bodies clustered around the entryway. Her brow furrowed in anger. They must have been trying to escape but were prevented by the magical barrier. Minako worried for a moment about the barrier. No ordinary enemy could have produced something like that. Its power and size were well beyond the abilities of a Youma.

Remembering herself, she signaled to the group of citizens she had amassed, pointing, and waving them toward the exit. Some mouthed words of thanks or else smiled meekly as they passed her. She watched as they carefully stepped over bodies and through the small hole in the barrier beyond the glass doors.

“Sailor V, behind you!” Ami’s urgent voice warned.

She reflexively tucked and rolled but was grazed by something. The shoulder of her uniform had torn and was soaked with blood. Oddly, the wound seemed relatively small.

Murmurs of panic erupted from the escaping civilians, some of them pausing, unsure of themselves.

“Just go!” Sailor V instructed brusquely, then turned her attention to her approaching opponent.

The humanoid Youma appeared to be covered in neon-colored, plastic armor. A set of cylindrical yellow tanks was set into its torso, a tube from which led to a handless right arm with an orange muzzle and more of the plastic coating. It raised the arm in the direction of the fleeing rescuees.

“No, I’m your opponent!” said Sailor V.

All the same, the Youma attacked, releasing a narrow jet of pressurized water. With frightening range and accuracy, the woman from the restaurant was hit in the back, a visible, red wound appearing as she fell to the floor.

“Mommy!” her little girl cried as one of the evacuees carried her to safety through the barrier. Another lifted the injured woman from the floor and followed.

In that same moment, Sailor V spat with venom, “You’ll pay for that, scum!” and charged what she realized now was a Youma made from a type of water pistol she had owned as a child. Its liquid attack was why her shoulder had seemed extra bloody.

“SHE’S HERE! SHE’S HE—!” cried the Youma as it slid the forestock of its pistol arm back and forth to reload. Before it could pump enough water from its tanks or finish its sentence, Sailor V stepped into its space and unleashed a punishing set of Aikido moves.

Seconds later, she removed the Crescent Moon Compact from the chest of her uniform, held it aloft, and uttered the magic words, “Crescent Cutter!” The curved item dazzled brilliantly, then she swung it down and up again, cleaving a cross-shaped wound through the Youma’s feeble, plastic armor in one swift motion.

Water burst forth from the monster’s tank-like abdomen as it fell to its knees without another word. However, it had said enough. As its body turned to shadow and reverted to a broken Super Soaker, a new enemy appeared from over the balustrade.

“SHE IS HERE!” the new Youma relayed to its allies as it perched precariously on the handrail and fired a spread of projectiles at the last of the fleeing pack. “AND THE HUMANS ARE ESCAPING!”

Sailor V spun on the spot and hurled her compact with all her strength, crying, “Crescent Boomerang!” The shining weapon sliced through the air and sunk into her new opponent’s chest. But there it remained, dimmed, and refused to return to its owner at her behest.

This new Youma was of a different kind, something more like Maladoll. There were no visible clues on its body to indicate what sort of object it had been created from. It was simply an amorphous, bipedal, multi-colored mass of…something.

Sailor V bit her lip as she processed the situation. Only four of the six enemies remained now, but an odd one had appeared, and its allies had been notified. They would surely gather following the news of her arrival, but she had to hold off on transforming until that moment. She couldn’t risk running out of power or stamina too soon, especially if whoever created the barrier was present.

Firing beams against her current opponent wasn’t smart since it didn’t have any obvious targets, but her weapon was lost. Or was it? There was only one thing for it. As the odd monster moved its arm in her direction, Sailor V charged. It released another spread of projectile body pieces, but she ducked and pressed on, then lunged with all her strength, tackling the Youma over the handrail.

The two of them seemed to float in mid-air for a moment before beginning to hurtle toward the ground from the second floor. Startled by the girl’s actions, the Youma had not reacted, but Sailor V took hold of the protruding end of her compact. “Crescent Cutter!” she spoke. The compact began to glow again, and she proceeded to carve the magically enhanced blade through the Youma’s body.

While Sailor V managed to pull out of their nosedive and land with finesse, her opponent landed in a heap of severed sections. Still, the way her weapon had cut through the Youma’s body concerned her. It had a strange consistency, dense but soft. With her left hand, she had clutched her opponent for leverage as they fell, and a piece remained in her grip. She squeezed it cautiously, noticing how it reshaped almost like clay. Multi-colored clay. Was this Youma made of Play-Doh of all things?

Minako thought back on the Youma they had been fighting recently. Many of them had been made of broken or old-fashioned items, toys, and appliances. Today she had seen one comprised of scrap metal car parts, and another from an old Super Soaker. Where was the enemy getting the objects to make their monsters? A junkyard? There was something amusing about it. Something odd, too.

Back in the day, the Sailor Soldiers’ enemies had been a little more selective about the objects chosen to create their soldiers. They usually imbued items or people of special significance. There was a level of desperation about these new Youma, though. Queen Beryl certainly never would have resorted to scrounging through trash heaps to make warriors. Minako’s mouth flickered with the briefest of smiles as she envisioned their old foe dumpster diving.

Was the Blood Moon Alliance that scared of confrontation? Was it that important for them to stay hidden? Was that an indication of their combined power? If so, maybe they weren’t the threat Ami believed them to be.

“Sailor V?” Ami’s voice rang out.

“I’m okay,” she replied into her wrist device. “Thanks for the warning earlier, but you cut it close, you know!”

“I’m sorry, I was distracted with hacking the mall’s systems but never mind that. The remaining energy signatures are closing in on your location! And what are you doing about the one on top of you?”

Just then, the sound of movement caught Minako’s attention. As she had feared, the Play-Doh Youma was special. Its separate chunks were molding together to reconstitute its body. Like the troublesome doll monster that she had disposed of, it was the type of enemy that she would need to erase in one shot. For that, she would need her full powers. The battle was just beginning.