From: "James Champagne"
			    THE FLASH POINT

(Flashman, Sakura and Trident are sitting in the theater.  

	Hey, I'm getting MSTed! And a friendly one, too; the sincerest form of 
flattery. Riff away, guys.

____________________________
Well, what do you know? Less than 24 hours after writing my  first 
story for the List, here's my second.

[Flashman: Fast sucker, isn't he?

	Andale! (sp?)

Sudden, irrepressible inspiration, or just the incredible willpower 
that can be summoned up by someone really, really determined  to put 
off working on his term papers? You decide.

[Flashman: I can agree with the latter.]

	Got me.

Seriously, this is dedicated to the nice folks who wrote back to say 
they liked my first story. I can personally guarantee that anyone who 
does send in comments will receive in return a beautiful, hand-
crafted...er...e-mail...whether you like what I write or not.

[F/S: We'll be waiting.]

	And here it is...

The New Girl

[Flashman: Debbi Gibson?
Trident: She wishes to be called DEBORAH now.]

	I'm betting she still won't be invited to appear in next year's Lilith Fair, 
though.


Lunchtime at Crossroads Junior High.

[Sakura: Let the feeding frenzy begin.]

	Hey Chef, what's on the menu today? Rice balls? Sweeeeet!

Serena was boooooored.

[Flashman: So this is a person only exposed to the NA dub.
Sakura: Says the guy whos only exposure to the originals is the 
movies and the first four episodes of R.
Flashman: I didn't mean anything bad by it, I was just pointing it 
out.]

	True enough. My knowledge of SM is based on: (1) The English NA dub to the 
end of R (ah, to be Canadian)--including that obnoxious "filler" ep: 20 
_solid_ minutes of transformation sequences on continuous loop, and with, oh, 
about 2 seconds of Uranus and Neptune to remind you what _won't_ be coming to 
your tv screen anytime soon. DIC isn't just cheap, they're _cruel_. (2) The 
French dub, shown in Quebec, which includes the eps DIC didn't bother with and 
the scenes they cut. (3) Summaries available on the internet.

(bits snipped throughout)

Molly, for all she knew, was still in bed, still in the fetal ball 
she had curled up into when the three of them had brought her home a 
few nights earlier, after Nephlyte vanished...<No, after he died,> 
she corrected her own thought. <We can't pretend it didn't really 
happen. That wouldn't be fair to him. Or to Molly.> She couldn't 
quite remember how the three of them had changed back to normal and 
got her home without any questions being asked. But they could 
probably have detransformed right in front of Molly at the time 
without her even noticing, she was so lost in her grief and her guilt.
 Amy had stayed with Molly in her room for a while. She wanted to 
make sure she didn't slip into shock. Serena and Raye had comforted 
Molly's mother, telling her...something. She accepted everything they 
said with a nod, but without really understanding, tears in her eyes. 
<We weren't very fair to her, either.>

[Flashman:(Hands a tissue to Sakura) Here.
Sakura:(Wipes her eyes) Thanks.
Trident: You must give DIC a little credit for leaving the fact that 
Nephrite died in the dub.]

	Yep. They _could_ have sent him to...another dimension!

Serena sighed. Why did it have to be so _hard_ to help people, 
sometimes? Sometimes there was nothing you could do, and nothing you 
could say, to make anyone feel better, and it didn't matter that you 
could change into someone else who was better at fighting monsters 
when you couldn't help your real friends when they were hurting.

[Flashman: Oh god.  Not ANOTHER Dark SM fic.
Sakura: I know, is there a bargan sale on these things or what?
Trident:(Confused) How do you sell fanfiction?]

	Not really dark; just "serious". We really need a rating scale to tell if the 
"dark" tag really means "characters will be more introspective and melancholy 
than usual" or "everybody dies or goes insane; the world as they know it 
ends".

"WAK!!! Melvin!!" She bounced back up from her startled fall--that 
was _Melvin's_ fault, and not her own clumsiness--and shook him by 
the collar like a rat. "How many ways can I say it...NEVER SNEAK UP 
ON ME!"

[Sakura: Although it's a nice mental image, I don't think that Serena 
would be so... physical with Melvin.  She'd just get in his face and 
yell.]

	Actually, I think she does shake him up once.

"Do you know which one she is?" Serena looked around for an 
unfamiliar face among the lunchtime crowd.

[Flashman: Look for the one with the slight pituitary problem.
Sakura:(Blasts Flashman with a Hadoken) Jerk!  I thought you LIKED 
Lita.
Flashman:(Smoking) Owwwwieee.  I do like her.  It doesn't gloss over 
the fact that she's a little... overdeveloped for someone of only 
fourteen years.]

	Don't you mean she just has a lot of talent for her age?

"Er...I..hi. M-my name's..." The other shoe dropped (and not on that 
creep Darien's head, for once). Both girls stared at each other in 
surprised recognition.

[All:(Snicker)
Trident: I see this author shares the majority of the FFMLs opinion 
of that man.]

	Whoops. That was supposed to be Serena's thought. Should have <>-ed it.

She blushed a bit remembering the language in which the 
girl made her... uhh... challenge to the bullies. The middle one 
strutted up to her and started walking around her, making his own... 
err... intentions clear in an equally colorful vocabulary.

<SNIP>

[Flashman:(Cleaning out his ears) Whoa.  I thought this was a G rated 
fic.
Sakura: Not anymore.]

	Hey, no fair. Serena edited out the specifics.

"After it happened... well, everyone 
just seemed to decide that it would be better for all concerned if I 
'got a fresh start' at a new school. I can't blame them, I guess. 
They wanted to get me away from where it happened, from the people 
who knew me. I suppose it's for the best. I couldn't really have 
faced them, once they knew what I had done. I can only imagine what 
they had to tell the principal here to get him to accept me."

[Flashman: Wow.  Harsh.]

	_Way_ harsh. Erm...sorry. That was the dub talking.

"That's...alright. You know," she sniffed a bit and wiped her eyes, 
"I think there are more people around here who would understand what 
you're going through than you might think."

The new girl gave her a look. "Something tells me I've already found 
one."

[(Flashman and Sakura dab their eyes as a small smile ends up on 
Tridents face.)]

	[Bows at this very nice acknowledgement.]

The new girl barely had time to hold it out before Serena snatched it 
up, opened her mouth wide and bit off fully half of it.

And turned green.

[(All three reviewers go wide eyed.)
Sakura: Flash-san... you were right, something is REALLY wrong here.
Trident: Taking into acount what we have just heard...
Flashman: Is this who I think it is?]

	Well, it _could_ be Minako with a major 'tude and a dye job.

The dark-haired girl smiled back and took her hand. "Sure. I'm Akane 
Tendo."

[(All the reviewers facefault.)

	Ahhh. The moment a writer lives for.

The End.
(unless anyone is really interested in seeing where this idea might 
go from here...)
________________________

Sakura: I for one, who has been Sailor Jupiter once, would like to 
see where this goes.
Trident: Even if it's only to hear...
Sakura:(Imitating Akane) REI NO BAKA!!!! (WHAM!)

	What I originally had in mind was more along the lines of: *sighhh* "He 
reminds me of my old fiancee...the BAKA!!" (WHAM!!!) But this works just as 
well.

The Flashman

May The Spirit Preserve You!

	And thanks for the MST!


Jim Champagne
jwchampagne@msn.com