Rei has a problem. She's cracked her transformation stick. While at first the side effects of transforming with it were minor - who doesn't love flaming hair? - lately it's been getting a little out of control. Not wanting Luna or Artemis to find out that she, perfect lovely little Rei-chan, could possibly have done something so clumsy that even Usagi had yet to do it, she turns first to Ami to see what she could do. When soon after the pair are charged with hunting down a stray youma, it's time to see if Mercury was able to correct the issue!

Sailor Mars played by Sailor Mercury
Sailor Mercury played by mercuryfan


Set the scene (maybe Rei privately approaching Ami for help?) and begin!

Ami was in her bedroom in her mom's luxury apartment studying her school homework.  As usual, she had started with her science class.  Once she was satisfied with how much studying she had done there, Ami put those books & other papers away in her bookbag, then got out the books & other papers for her English class.  She was about to dive into studying them when she heard the doorbell of her mom's luxury apartment ring.

OOC :

Rei stood in front of Ami’s apartment door, staring at her cracked transformation stick in dismay. No matter how much she’d glared at it, it wouldn’t fix itself. And things were getting out of hand. The first time, her hair was on fire. Then her red high heels had flames licking from their soles (that was actually pretty cool – she wondered if she could keep that effect after fixing it). But then the others had started noticing, and while she could easily dismiss Usagi’s terrified shriek of “Rei-chan you’re actually on fire!” with a simple, “That’s cause I’m the senshi of fire, duh”, she’d become more and more worried what would happen the next time she transformed with it. The effects were so unpredictable. One time she actually ended up half in her civilian outfit and half in her senshi outfit, which had taken several more trials and errors to fix. In the process, she’d burned her school uniform to a crisp.

That had been the last straw. So that was why she was here, because if someone needed to get something fixed, Ami was the best person for it. She could solve any problem, right? And Rei could trust her not to tell the others. Truthfully, Ami was the only one in her circle of friends she could depend on to keep a secret, especially one of this nature. Usagi maybe could try for about four seconds before she accidentally blurted it out, Minako would be too happy to broadcast her failure to everyone, and Mako was too honest that keeping a secret felt like lying. But Ami? Ami was kind enough to keep it for her and she had the self-restraint necessary to do so.

She had rang the doorbell, and now she fidgeted anxiously as she waited for Ami to open the door.

Ami knew that she was home alone due to her mother's long work hours.  In cases like this, Ami saw it as the silver lining of her living situation - she could usually count on her home as being a nice, quiet place to study.

So when she heard the doorbell ring, Ami knew it was her responsibility to check and see who was at the door.  She immediately got up from what she used as her studying desk in her room and dashed at her relatively slow speed toward the locked front door of the apartment.  When she first reached the hallway leading to the front door, she called out "Coming!"

Then once she got to the front door of the apartment, Ami made sure to first look through the peephole.  She was surprised to see Rei through it.  So Ami then unlocked and opened the front door, saying in a cheerful yet surprised voice "Rei-chan!  What a pleasant surprise!  Would you like to come in?  What brings you here?"

Ami greeted her cheerfully, and Rei felt relieved. At least she wasn’t interrupting anything, it seemed. She knew Ami protected her study hours valiantly and usually preferred not to entertain surprise visits. “Ami-chan, I need your help,” she said, deciding to be honest and to the point. She raised the transformation rod in question so that Ami could clearly see the crack.

“I was stupid and sat on this because it had slipped under my mat and I didn’t even realize it. As you may have probably noticed,” Rei knew Ami was a good observer and probably didn’t miss as many of the transformation incidents as she hoped, “it has made transforming really, really… well, let’s just say… unpredictable.”

"Oh!  So that's why you've been - pardon my wording - so fired up in many of your last several transformations!" Ami exclaimed after shutting the apartment's front door behind Rei.  Ami then realized the next step was to make sure they could work on this in privacy "Follow me."  She gestured for Rei to follow her as she led the way to her bedroom.

When they got there, Rei would find a large bedroom - so large, it was almost amazing how it could fit in this building.  Ami's bed took up part of one side of the room.  Most of the other wall space was covered in shelves with lots of books on them - if Rei looked closely, she would see most of them were some kind of research books, or other books to help with Ami's studies.  Though there was one poster taking up some otherwise-unused wall space.  It was a black-and-white photo of Albert Einstein with his famous messy hair.

Ami's large study desk was back on another side of the room, near the one window in the bedroom.  But Ami did not go towards it this time.  She went to the part of her room with the most unused floor space.  After asking Rei to close her bedroom door, she reached into the magical pocket space where she left her own transformation wand as well as her special computer when not using them.  Ami got out the latter from it.  Turning her mini-supercomputer on, she told Rei seriously "Now let's see what we can find out about this."

Rei followed Ami inside, her face burning slightly. Although she generally found talking to Ami about these kinds of things easiest, she still felt ashamed about her carelessness. Even Usagi had never broken any of her magical objects. Shouldn’t they be reinforced with magic or something? How could she crack it just by sitting on it?

Ami’s room was as large as she remembered it. When the girls hung out here, they usually gathered in the living room, so Rei didn’t see Ami’s bedroom much. While it was impressively big, it was also really neat and quite bare, with the exception of the shelves of books and the one poster. It was really different from Usagi’s room, which most days looked like it had suffered an explosion of pink and bunny items. Rei closed the door behind her as instructed and waited as Ami pulled out her supercomputer.

“Alright. I hope you can figure out what’s wrong with it and how to fix it. Something tells me super glue won’t be enough.” She handed Ami the transformation stick to analyze.

Ami smiled weakly at Rei's joke about super-glue as she took the offered transformation stick from Rei.  Then she typed the command into her supercomputer to request that it analyze what was wrong with the transformation stick and held the computer in front of Rei's cracked transformation stick while telling Rei in a thoughtful tone "Okay, first for what's wrong with it."

The results from that command turned out to not be all that surprising.  Ami's supercomputer said that the crack had allowed some of the magic in the transformation stick to leak out of it into the world around them.  Ami reported this result to Rei by telling Rei with a serious expression on her face "This doesn't sound good.  It says that some of the magic in the transformation stick has been allowed to leak out because of the crack.  So the only solution might be to have Luna make you a whole new transformation stick to replace this one - if she can.  Though I can certainly check that by asking my computer how we can fix the problem."

Rei watched intently as Ami did her thing, and listened to her findings. She became worried when she heard that the magic in the stick was leaking into the world. That couldn’t be good. That meant the next time she transformed, someone else might be affected.

“Luna?” she asked, dread filling her. “Must we? What would she think if she knew I’d broken my transformation stick when even Usagi is more careful than that?” Rei was horrified at the prospect of Luna’s judging stare. Between the two cats, Luna was definitely the stricter-parent type, and she already liked yelling at Usagi a lot as it was. Rei was supposed to be better. She was supposed to be the capable and elegant one, not the clumsy one.

Rei did not like the thought of telling Luna at all.

“Please, Ami-chan, if there’s any other way at all, I’ll take it.”

"Oh, good point," Ami realized when Rei rhetorically asked about what Luna would think if she found out about this.  So as Rei almost sounded like she was pleading for another way, Ami had just started typing the command for how to fix the problem into her super-computer.  Being one that was always happy to help a friend, after Rei finished speaking, Ami smiled "I just asked my computer for any solutions that don't involve Luna.  Hopefully, it'll find some."

A few seconds later, the super-computer printed its response on the screen.  Ami looked it over, then told Rei about the findings in somewhat of a happy tone "The computer has found out that you can't really do much of anything about the magic that leaked out of your transformation stick the last few times you transformed.  See, that magic got dispersed among several women, whichever happened to be closest to you at the time & place of each such transformation.  None of those women have enough magic in them to be affected by a transformation of yours."

Ami continued on in a serious tone "Now to prevent any more magic from leaking out of your transformation stick, it would be best if you cauterized it to seal over the crack.  The thing is, you need to be careful and precise in terms of where you aim your power over fire, because you don't want to solder your transformation stick to the surface it's sitting on.  Are you confident you can do that?"

Rei hopefully waited as Ami looked for another solution. She was grateful that Ami understood her dilemma and that she was willing to keep this a secret from Luna. “Thank you, Ami-chan, you might just be my lifesaver.”

She watched as the computer showed some text that she couldn’t understand, listening to Ami’s explanations intently. Well, at least the leaked magic wasn't going to hurt anyone. That was a relief.

And then listening to Ami’s next words, Rei nodded her head slowly. “I can try that. It will require a lot of concentration, but there’s no other choice. I have to try it.”

She sighed and grabbed the transformation stick. “In order to use my powers, obviously I have to transform first. As you know, the effects of the crack have been weird lately. Is it okay if I try here or should we go outside the building? I don’t want to accidentally torch your apartment. Or you can also transform and be ready to douse things with water?”

Ami thought for a sec about how & where Rei should transform.  Before long, she decided that it would be best if Rei transformed outside (because this was technically her mom's apartment, and she would rather not even chance any smoke stains on a wall and/or ceiling).  So Ami told Rei in a serious tone while still trying to show some friendliness "I think the best place to try this is outside.  I know where the nearest couple back alleys are that aren't used very much; we can transform in one of them, okay?"

Ami waited for Rei to agree to that, then started leading the way to the exit from the apartment building.  Once the two of them were outside the apartment building a minute or two later, Ami led Rei to one of the alleys she had referenced earlier.  Fortunately, they found it empty, so Ami walked into it, then decided to transform into her senshi form there as a precautionary measure.  Finally, she turned to Rei and smiled "Ready when you are."

Rei nodded in understanding as Ami decided it was best to transform outside. She followed her friend outside into the alley. Finding it empty, Rei stepped inside and waited as Ami transformed. When she was standing in front of her as Mercury, Rei looked down on her damaged transformation stick and took a deep breath. Please don’t let me explode, she sent a silent prayer as she called out the words.

As always, she felt more on fire than usual. When the world slowed down again, she found she actually transformed successfully, but her body was releasing sparks like fireworks. Sparks of fire shot in different directions, ricocheting off of the walls and latching onto a nearby tree. “Ami-chan, watch out!” she warned as she backed up, wincing and hoping the fireworks display would soon end.

Mercury's smile quickly disappeared when the sparks started shooting off of Mars.  When some of these sparks started landing on a nearby tree, Mercury got worried and decided to act on her own.  She used her power over water to send a stream of water at the tree, aiming for the sparks on the tree that looked to be the hottest, because she didn't want the tree to erupt in flames.

Hearing her friend's call for her to watch out, Mercury took a quick glance at Mars while still sending a stream of water at the tree.  Seeing the fiery sparks still shooting off of Mars, Mercury asked the raven-haired senshi in a worried tone "Do you want me to douse you in water here?"

Mars waited a few more seconds, glad that Mercury was taking care of the worst of the sparks. She could feel the flame around her dying down slowly. When finally her body stopped fizzling and sparking, she sighed. “I think it’s alright now. Gods, I felt like a literal human firework.” She glared at the transformation stick as if it had personally decided to pick the most explosive effect so far right when they were about to fix it. As if in retort, it gave one last tiny spark, and Mars almost dropped it.

“Okay, I’m fixing you right now,” she said decisively. She put the pen on a low wall with the crack facing upward. “Alright. So… I just shoot concentrated fire along this crack to seal it, right? You don’t think it will cause any side effects, using magic on the magical transformation stick?”

She’d obviously never tried to manipulate the rod magically before, and since it also channeled some of her powers in a way, Mars was understandably nervous. But since she’d cracked it so easily with physical means, maybe the pen was just an ordinary pen on the outside.

Mercury watch the transformation stick's effects die down, glad that it seemed to be over.  When Mars asked about the possibility of side-effects from using her own magic on a magical stick, Mercury thought out loud "Hmmmmm, I would doubt it, but I myself wouldn't be sure.  So I'll check my computer, okay?"

After Mercury checked her computer for such a possibility, she was relieved to report (to Mars) "Ah, there's only about a 1% chance of magical side-effects from such an effort."  Mercury then made sure she was well out of the path between Mars and her transformation stick, and well away from the latter (in the off-chance that it did give off spectacular side-effects).  "Ready when you are," she told Mars in anticipation.

Mars was glad to hear the chances for another magical mishap was slim. She focused on the rod in question and took a deep breath. Summoning all her willpower, she willed her magic to become a single burst of fire with laser precision. Extending her forefinger above the crack, she watched as a single beam of concentrated fire shot out. She slowly moved it along the crack, watching it as it slowly sealed. It gave sparks as it went along but nothing exploded so far.

Finally, the crack was completely sealed, and Mars banished the fire. She picked up the rod carefully and inspected it. It almost looked as good as new, if not for the small scar that ran along its side. But it should be hardly noticeable unless someone was looking for it.

“Is that it?” she showed it to Mercury. “Is it done?”

Mercury watched Mars use her power over fire to slowly seal the crack with bated breath.  The blue-haired senshi made sure to make as little noise as possible during the process, so that Mars could concentrate easier.  When Mars banished her fire power because she had reached the other end of the crack, Mercury walked up near Mars's transformation stick slowly and cautiously (making it clear she was also letting Mars reach it first).

When Mars showed her the transformation stick, Mercury looked at it as closely as she easily could.  Seeing the results like this, Mercury had to comment happily "Impressive!  It looks like a great job to my naked eyes!"  Then, realizing she could better answer Mars's question by using her computer, Mercury got it back out and turned it on again.  Once it was ready a couple seconds later, Mercury asked it to analyze Mars's transformation stick to see if it would create or cause any more side-effects.  After holding her computer up in front of where Mars was holding her transformation stick and giving her computer enough time to figure out the answer, Mercury informed the raven-haired senshi of the result on her computer screen in a happy tone "Hai, it's fixed now.  According to my computer, that should prevent it from giving off any more side-effects."

OOC :

Mars smiled at Mercury’s comment, and she waited until the computer finished analyzing it. She heaved a sigh of relief. “That’s wonderful news. Thank you, Mercury. I owe you one.”

She detransformed back to civilian form and waved at her friend. “Come on, let’s go home.”

Unfortunately, it didn’t take more than a few steps before her sixth sense began tingling. She felt the presence of evil nearby. Rei paused, all her senses alert. She didn’t hear or see anything yet, but it wasn’t a mistake; she definitely sensed something.

“I think there might be a youma around here,” she said quietly. “Do you think you can scan the area to check?”

When the raven-haired senshi detransformed and waved at Mercury to come back home, the blue-haired senshi started to comply by starting to put her computer away.  She had just finished putting it away when Rei paused in her return.  Mercury looked at Rei and could tell that she had sensed something, probably with her famous sixth sense.  Then Rei spoke quietly, so that Mercury, who had been about to detransform, had to strain to understand the shrine miko.  Hearing Rei ask her to scan the area, with a focus on finding any youma, Mercury nodded affirmatively in response.

After getting her computer back out and turning it back on, Mercury typed in the command to scan the area for any evil presences.  When her computer displayed a map of the area with the one evil presence located on it, Mercury reported these results to Rei in a barely-louder volume than Rei had just used "Your suspicions were correct.  It looks like there's a youma on the other side of my apartment complex.  It looks like it might be heading towards the Crown."

Rei massaged her temple and sighed. “Well. Guess it’s no time like the present to try the fixed transformation pen,” she said, eyeing the now slightly scarred rod.

She muttered the transformation phrase, and the familiar wash of power enveloped her. This time, it didn’t feel out of control like before. The flames felt friendly and calm, the way they always used to be. In a matter of seconds, Rei was back as Sailor Mars with no incidents.

“Well,” she said in satisfaction. “Looks like we did fix that problem,” she said with a grin at Mercury. “Let’s go take care of some youma.”

ooc: