Tempest

Hello, my name is Jonathan Thompson. I know, I know... it sounds strange. You're wondering how a five-foot-six, redheaded, very well-built eighteen-year-old girl ended up with a name like that, aren't you? It's a long story, trust me, and the real story is how a name like that ended up with this body. Confused yet? You should try living it... or maybe not.

You've probably heard of me, though you don't know it yet. I've been on the news a few times, thought he stories weren't terribly flattering. Now, I'm telling the real story, so that when everything's said and done, people will know the truth. So sit down and listen; we're going to be here a while.

This stuff is like a drug. The more you get, the more you want. I figured out pretty quickly that I couldn't afford everything that I wanted to see, but I was raised better than to steal So I found a club, and met a lot of other fans like me. We'd all get together and watch something different every week... we all got to see what we wanted, and only one of us had to buy it.

Just like anything else, there's good anime and bad anime. There's also anime that isn't really good but is fun, and anime that's technically good but isn't really fun at all. Then... there's Sailor Moon. It's both good and bad, from what I had seen. Of course, that wasn't much... just the "R" movie and a couple of episodes, but it was enough to get me hooked. Sailor Moon kinda grows on you--a lot like a cancer. The first time you watch it you laugh, because it's so silly. You might even heckle it... I know I did. The second time, though, you start to see through the silliness... and that's when it gets its hooks in you. The show actually has some depth beneath the pink sugar-heart charm. The third time I saw it... that was it. It had me.

I still hadn't seen more than a few episodes, though--the American release of the show was kinda butchered, and I couldn't afford the DVD's--and I didn't know all that much about it. Sailor Moon is one of those addictions you don't talk about if you're a guy--not with my friends, anyway--so I didn't have a lot of chances to see more. My first anime convention would change all of that. It was late May, right around my birthday, and though I didn't really know what to expect, I knew it would be a weekend to remember. So, off I set, looking for paradise.

If you've never been to a con, there really is no describing it. For an entire weekend some unsuspecting hotel is transformed. It's like a different world... an anime world, in every sense of the word. It's everywhere, from the costumes (some very good, some not so good, but all interesting) to the video rooms, to the panel discussions, if it's anime, it's there. Normal people tend to freak out a bit when they see it... but for the fans, it's as close to being there as we come.

On top of that, there is the dealers' room. Every sort of merchandise you can imagine, from anime, to manga, to toys, to music, to models, to computer games... and more, so much more. There's some really great stuff there... and some real crap, too... but nobody seems to be able to agree on what is the great stuff and what is the crap. Y'know the old saying about one man's junk and another man's treasure? Visit the dealers' room at an anime con, and it'll take on an entirely new meaning.

It was in the dealers' room that Sharon found me. Sharon, you see, was one of my "anime friends" from the club I had joined... and she was a Sailor Moon fan. A big Sailor Moon fan. To give you an idea, she was dressed up as Sailor Moon. It wasn't a half-bad costume, either... though it helped that Sharon looked the part. She had the long blonde hair and the blue eyes for it, and though she looked a couple of years older than Usagi she fit the hyper-cute mold perfectly. Her hair didn't quite go in Usagi's meatball 'do, but no human alive has anime hair, and she managed it better than most. Sharon even had that 'klutz' act down, not that it was an act. I never thought someone could really be that uncoordinated until I met Sharon.

"Hey, Jon!" she called out from halfway across the packed chamber. "I found something cool! Come over here!" I shrugged and started picking my way through the crowd; sometimes my opinion of "cool" didn't quite agree with hers, but it couldn't hurt to look. When I finally reached her, she thrust a small, light-blue stick nto my hands. "Happy birthday!"

"It's not my birthday till next--" I started to protest, then stopped. "Is this what I think it is?" I looked at her oddly, then, wondering what had possessed her to buy me such a thing.

"Yeah! It's a transformation wand!" she answered excitedly, showing me the one she'd bought for herself as well. Hers was silver, with the tiny image of a crab embossed at one end. Mine had a pair of twins rendered in similar fashion, I noted, turning it over in my hands. "Aren't they good replicas?" she gushed. "They must be handmade!"

They were well-constructed, I had to admit. They looked real, so much so that I couldn't even tell what they were made from. Too heavy to be plastic, too light to be metal. Wood...? No, they didn't have a grain to them. Maybe it was a better gift than I had given her credit for. "Where'd you get these?"

"Table back that way," she answered, looking over her left shoulder. "Hey... the guy's gone!"

"Must've sold out."

"I can see why," she observed. "The price was right... but I didn't see anyone else at the table."

"Oh, well," I shrugged. "Thanks for the gift. Now come on... there's so much more to see!" As we slipped through the crowd toward one of the exits, I dropped the wand into a pocket.

Something tugged a little at the back of my mind just then, but I didn't think much of it.

I saw some more Sailor Moon that night; I hadn't planned to catch that particular showing, but I just felt like it for some reason. It wasn't one of the better episodes, though, so I sort of lost track somewhere along the way. Stuffing my hands in my pockets, I found the replica wand again.

There was just something about that wand... it bothered me. When I held it, I felt some kind of touch on my mind. No, more than a touch... images, and words to go with it. It was pretty disturbing, really... but I was having too much fun to worry about it. I shook my head and told myself I'd been watching too much of this stuff--not that I intended to stop. Still, I couldn't quite get it out of my head. Of course, I had other things to be concerned with... my friends and I were going to slip into one of the room parties that night.

All I'd heard from them was how fun it was, and the crazy things that happened sometimes, and how I couldn't miss it. It was a chance to do something wild, to have a little fun... and while Sharon said I was just being stupid, I'd have been remiss in my duties as a teenaged male if I didn't get into some trouble. So I went.

You have to understand; I'd never really done anything blatantly stupid in my life, so I had no idea what I was getting into. No sooner had we found our way inside when my friends all seemed to vanish into the crowd, leaving me to fend for myself. No problem, I told myself. I knew what to do next. Finding my way over to one of the tables, I got myself something to drink.

That was, of course, my second mistake. My first was listening to my friends and going to the party to begin with, and my third was yet to come. You see, I'd never had alcohol before, and after a couple of drinks I was totally plastered. I ended up in the middle of a group of people talking about costumes, and whose were good and whose weren't. By this time, my judgement was evidently a bit clouded, because I vaguely remember holding one hand over my head, and hearing my own voice say...

"You think that's a good costume, do ya? Well... take a look at this! Gemini Star Power... make up!"

Suddenly, I was dead sober, looking at an instantly silent roomful of stunned anime fans--all of whom were staring at me as though I'd just grown a second head. Fuzzily aware of what had just happened, I looked down at myself and screamed.

Gone were the t-shirt and jeans I'd been wearing. In their place was a light-blue and white stylized sailor fuku, complete with ridiculously short skirt, tall boots, and long white gloves... and the body to match. I hadn't grown a second head, but the two rather prominent mounds that jutted out from my chest were more than enough to justify the stares. It couldn't... this couldn't be, I told myself. I looked up, at the hand raised over my head, and there was the transformation wand, slowly fading out as the lightshow effects around me dissipated. My mind froze from shock, unable to deal with what it was seeing... what it was feeling... what I had become.

I stood in stunned silence, my mouth opening and closing but no words coming out. When finally I did find a voice, though, it was even more disturbing... a soft, smooth alto tone that only hammered home what had been done to me. This wasn't my voice! This wasn't my body! "Tell me I'm dreaming..." I said almost pleadingly. "Someone tell me I'm dreaming."

Just then, the door flew open and another girl, similarly dressed, burst into the room. Grabbing me by the arm, she yelled something about being late for cosplay and literally dragged me out the door, sparing me further embarrassment. Once we were safely away, she stopped, pushing me up against the wall, yelling in my face... I still don't remember the words, being as I was in shock, but the voice shook me back to something resembling coherence. Drawing a deep breath, I
looked up into the face of my rescuer. It was Sharon.

That was the first and last time I ever got drunk.

Desperate to get away from the crowds, to find some space to think, we trudged out to my car. On the way out, we heard a couple of shouts of "Great costume!" and the like, but nobody really seemed to pay us that much attention. For that, I was grateful.

As we passed through the front doors of the hotel, I got a brief glimpse of my reflection in the glass. I was, well... beautiful, and that realization shook me to the core. If I'd seen myself in the halls at school, I'd have asked me out in a flash. A violent shudder passed through me then, and I'm sure I must have looked odd as I recoiled from my reflection. Sharon tugged at my arm, tearing me away from that dreadful moment, and I recovered myself and went on.

Finally reaching the car, I slumped down into the drivers seat, barely remembering to unlock the door for Sharon. Not wanting to see myself, not wanting to think about what had happened to me, I focused on her. She seemed almost as stunned as I was, blankly staring out into the parking lot as she sat with her knees pulled up to her chest, the rather short skirt of her fuku drawing my eye for a moment as it left an interesting view. I guess there was some small comfort in that--at least I still thought like a guy--but I really wasn't that interested under the circumstances. Instead, my gaze moved to her face, where a single teardrop formed at the corner of her eye.

For a while we just sat like that, neither of us able to find the words we were looking for. There weren't words for this, anyway. Finally, after a while, I said, "This can't be real. This has to be some kind of crazy dream." I shivered... that voice still freaked me out.

Sharon shook her head, but still did not look at me. "It's real," she answered, her voice thin and weak and yet carrying a certainty that chilled me. "I've... dreamed of this before, and it wasn't like this. Didn't feel like this. Can't you feel the power inside you now? Dreams... dreams don't do that."

I sighed, trying to defy it. I had to deny it, even as I felt the stirrings of magic within me. "It has to be a dream. I've been watching too much anime... I'm too worked up over the con. Something. This is the real world, and this just doesn't happen."

Sharon unfolded her legs, leaning forward to look up at the stars through the windshield. For several moments she sat like that... moments I will never forget. Sharon, as I'd known her, was gone... transformed. There was a presence about her that she hadn't had before, a presence that nobody had, and there was a seriousness in her eyes I'd never seen. It wasn't just the fuku, though its shimmering silver and white suited her perfectly... this was within, not without. Something had awakened inside of her, and that something was stunningly beautiful.

More importantly, though, it was real. Sailor Cancer. Even as I took in the wonderous transformation that had occurred in my friend, my mind added that if Sailor Cancer was real, then Sailor Gemini had to be real, too. The weight of truth bore down on me in that moment, smashing through all my denial and crushing my resistance to powder.

This really was happening.

Then she turned to me, and the spell broke. "I'm sorry, Jon," she whispered, the tears running down her cheeks. "This is all my fault. I gave you the wand, even after I felt the power in my own."

I shook my head slowly, trying to take everything in. It was too much. Magic come to life, Sharon's transformation... my own, even more startling one. "It... it can't be your fault, Sharon," I stammered. "You can't blame yourself for this." My mind was running triple-time, a blaze of discovery and revelation coming too fast to interperet. This was magic... and I was unused to the way magic worked. I could feel things I shouldn't be able to feel, and see in ways I shouldn't be able to see. I fought through the mad scramble of images and sensations, searching for an answer that would give meaning to it all. "Sharon... this was... meant to be, somehow. You didn't choose the wands; they chose you. They chose us. They know us, somehow."

She nodded, and I could see something change in her eyes then. "In the series... they don't work for just anyone."

"Yeah," I agreed, feeling a new weight descend on my shoulders. "Which means I'm stuck with this. It's fate."

"Jon..." she whispered, reaching out to touch my shoulder. I pulled away, knowing she could not understand why, knowing it hurt her, but unable to do anything else. This body felt things differently, and I didn't want to be reminded of it. "Wait," I whispered, looking for a way... I didn't want to hurt her any more than she already had been. "Let me try..." I concentrated, and felt a warmth flow over my body. I didn't have to look at myself then to know; even if Sharon's worried look hadn't relaxed, I could feel the difference as I returned to my natural form. "Ok... I can change back, then." Looking at the little wand that had brought me all this trouble, I sighed. "It's not... too bad, then. Maybe I won't have to use it."

Even as I forced a smile with the words, though, the new voice in my mind knew better.