New Earth
Part 2-
By Tisha
	
	"Why do we have to learn Karate if we have *powers*?" Chibi-Usa asked Makoto, who was 
teaching them for the day.

	She raised her eyebrows and looked at the five girls. "Because it can come in handy. You know 
you can't just power up attacks over and over again or you'll exhaust yourselves. This way you have 
another choice. Besides, it's always good to have some self-defense."

	Naomi stifled a laugh. "Mom? We have guards follow us anywhere we go, why would we need 
self-defense?"

	Chibi-Usa groaned from her place on the ground. "You think *you* have it bad? Our suite is 
constantly under surveillance. Last week I was in the shower and one of the guards came running in 
because he heard me drop a bottle of shampoo."

	Makoto smiled, thinking how true it was that the guards overdid it a little. "Okay, it doesn't 
matter the circumstances but it will come in handy sometime. Just stop complaining and pay 
attention!"

	Usagi smiled from where she was watching. Mamoru came up next to her and draped an arm 
over her shoulders. "Duty calls. Pluto needs to speak with you about something." 

	Usagi smiled up at him. "All right." Usagi stood and took her husband's hand, walking with him 
into the palace. He led her to the control room, where they would analyze anything and everything 
happening around Tokyo, and the entire world. Setsuna was waiting for them and she faced them 
seriously. 

	"We've found our threat."

	Usagi came forward to look at the screen Pluto had brought up. It was a picture of a building 
with several colors added onto it by the computers. "What is this?"

	Setsuna pressed a button to zoom it in and she pointed to the red color. "It's evil power. An 
underwater building in the east Pacific Ocean is giving it off. We never even knew that this underwater 
colony existed. They could easily have weapons we never thought of. That explosion a few months 
back probably was from some sort of missile that travels under water. We don't particularly know what 
they want or why they happened to attack after all this time- our dating software shows that this was 
probably here since the birth of Crystal Tokyo- but there have been several other sudden explosions. 
They all happened near the coasts of the Pacific Ocean.

	"I know the girls aren't very ready, but we don't have much time before we need to do 
*something* about this. And we are pretty much helpless against something like this without powers. 
So it's going to be all up to them."

	Usagi studied the picture before her. She didn't want to send her daughter and the other girls 
off to fight something like this. She knew for a fact that they couldn't possibly make it, not with the 
small amount of training they'd had so far. "When was the last attack?"

	"Two weeks ago. In Hawaii." Pluto pressed another button to bring up a map of the world, 
centered on the Pacific Ocean. "We're guessing from this pattern that they are trying to do something. 
And we're estimating that the next one will be right here." She pointed to a black dot in California.

	Usagi looked at her and then at Mamoru. "We need to triple the training. Start them on the 
training of their attacks as well. We need them to be ready."

•••••••••••••••••••

	Naomi lowered herself onto the couch, groaning. "I ache all over."

	Makoto looked up from the book she was reading. "They're training you poor girls too hard. 
You guys are supposed to be as powerful as we were with three years of practice."

	Naomi nodded, rubbing her temples. "It's not just the physical training. We haven't done that 
kind of stuff for a while now. But today in practice Michiko hit me with a flame sniper. Man I am 
starting to pity those youma."

	"Those two are just too young. I thought it was bad when we had to start at fourteen, but 
they're only eleven. I feel bad for Rei and Ami, having to let them go to California alone."

	"Well not alone. If only someone could decide who's going to chaperone us already. Usagi says 
we'll probably have to leave Friday."

	Makoto nodded, knowing that they would be leaving soon. It was hard for all of them to think 
of letting their daughters fly across the ocean and battle for the first time. Makoto wasn't too worried 
though, since Naomi was seventeen and seemed to be pretty good with her powers. She was mature 
enough to make a good soldier, as Chibi-Usa and Takara were as well. But Kita and Michiko were just 
so young that everyone was concerned for them. 

•••••••••••••••••••

	"I would give anything to be the one to escort them, but as I keep being reminded there are 
too many important things I'm needed for here. I'd certainly feel better if it was one of us to go with 
them, even though we all have duties here." Usagi looked around at the group of her eight friends, 
the husbands were at the table as well. The five new senshi were to leave the next day for California. 
Luna, Artemis, and Diana were going to be sent with them at first, but it was decided that one of the 
senshi would be a better choice.

	Everyone wanted to be able to go and help out the senshi, but they all also had good reasons 
that they couldn't leave. 

	"Well, I could go. Kado's old enough that he'd be fine if I left him here with Urawa." Ami 
glanced at her husband.

	"No, you've got a family. I should be the one to go." Everyone was silent as Rei made the 
suggestion they all knew she would. She was actually the most obvious choice, considering she didn't 
have any other family and her daughter was the youngest. 

	Usagi nodded. "I thought you'd want to. I think your duties can be passed off pretty easily." 
She looked around the group of them. "Are you sure you want to go?"	

	Rei nodded her head immediately. "Of course I'm sure." She averted her eyes to the table and 
lowered her voice. "I can't lose Michiko."
	
•••••••••••••••••••

	The plan was to get two hotel rooms near the ocean. As soon as they felt they were ready for 
the fight, the five senshi were going to teleport into the underwater building. Their job was to find out 
why they had been attacking places along the coast and to stop them whatever way they could. The 
five young senshi had gone through many simulators and scenarios to be completely ready for this 
fight. Their school training in Crystal Tokyo had severely stressed the learning of English so most of 
them were quite fluent.

	Rei's duty was to keep in contact with the senshi through a communication device that had 
been specially designed for the new senshi. But the device wasn't strong enough to communicate all 
the way back to Tokyo and so she had to relay all the information from the senshi back to them via 
telephone. Rei unlocked the door to the first hotel room and the five young girls poured in after her. 
They were more excited than anything else not only about their little vacation but even the battle.

	Rei looked around at the room and the two queen size beds in it. "Takara, Chibi-Usa and 
Naomi can stay here. You girls are old enough to have a room yourself. I'll share the adjoining room 
with Michiko and Kita." She left them all inside the room to unlock the one next door and get the two 
doors between the rooms open so that they could travel back and forth between them if they wanted 
to. They got their bags settled and recuperated from their long plane ride. They had insisted on 
teleporting but Usagi had been afraid that the enemies could detect it. Rei flopped down on her bed; 
all five of the girls were currently in the one room with her. "What now?"

	Chibi-Usa stood up, her eyes sparkling. "Shopping!"

	Rei propped herself up on her elbows to look at them. "You're supposed to be getting ready 
for tomorrow." Michiko went and sat next to her mom. "Come on mom, its L.A. Just let us shop a little 
bit and we'll practice later."

	Rei smiled, her own shopping side coming out at the suggestion. "All right. But we're coming 
back right after dinner."

•••••••••••••••••••

	There were so many stores in L.A. that they were having a lot of fun. Much of it was similar to 
Japan, but the merchandise itself was different. They even visited Little Tokyo and had fun feeling like 
they were home again- but in pre-Crystal Tokyo. After hours of shopping they settled down to have 
dinner at a little cafe. 

	"So, tomorrow's the big day. I'm pretty excited." Naomi said while taking a bite of her salad. 
Rei smiled at her. "Reminds me of your mother. She always looked forward to battles. At least until 
you were born that is." Naomi smiled about the comparison to her mother. She didn't mind at all and 
in fact strived to be like her.

	Rei looked at the girls. "So, do you feel ready?" She rested her eyes on Michiko.

	Michiko studied her. "Please don't worry tomorrow mom, we've had a lot of practice and I 
know everything will go smoothly."

	They put the talk of their upcoming battle behind them and focused on enjoying their dinner 
and their mini-vacation in Los Angeles before returning back to the hotel room to go over their plans. 
Rei went over everything important, especially the fact that they needed to stay in contact on the 
radios. If they got separated they were supposed to keep close contact with her just in case. 

	It was already eleven by the time they finished reviewing but none of them were tired 
because of the time difference. Rei felt lightheaded out of nowhere and had to sit down to steady 
herself.

	"Mom, are you okay?" Michiko sat across from her mother and studied her worriedly.

	Rei nodded and smiled. "My head just felt a little fuzzy-" But she didn't finish the sentence. 
Michiko and the others watched as Rei just dematerialized from the room, a small piece of paper 
falling from the middle of the air where she had been.

	Michiko glanced at her friends in horror before picking up the letter. She unfolded it and read 
it out loud to the others. "So you girls think I'm stupid enough to sit around and wait until you invade 
my own private palace? I'm not going to let you off that easy. But now that you're expected I can't let 
you go and change your minds, so I took your babysitter as insurance. Don't worry; I'll take very good 
care of her. You picked a good one to come with you. She just happens to be someone I've wanted to 
see for a very long time."

To be continued.

Author's Note: Well as you're starting to see this story doesn't have much of the other senshi. Just the 
new ones and Rei. But Rei's story in the "Friends Forever" series was rather short so I'm making up for 
it here. I'm not sure how long this will turn out to be yet...