A Word from the Author. First I'd like to offer a grateful acknowledgment (or a humble apology, depending on how you look at things) to Tuxedo Will for his "Advice to Authors" on Rush's Sailor Moon Homepage. Without his list of overused SM fanfic ideas, I would never have thought to write this fanfic. :) And a nod to L.A. Graf for inspiring the setting for this fanfic. One: The Fanfic. "Where are we?" Sailor Mars asked looking around at their strange surroundings. The Sailor Scouts had mysteriously appeared in a room that was unfamiliar to all of them. "How did we get here?" Sailor Mercury wondered. "Is everyone all right?" Sailor Moon looked around for all the Scouts. "Why is everything so big?" Sailor Jupiter stood next to a can of pop and could barely see over the top. "Hey there's some writing here on this paper," Sailor Venus called out pointing to paper she was standing on. "A very big sheet of paper," Jupiter added feeling slightly unnerved and annoyed at being so tiny. "What does it say?" Mercury asked. Venus frowned at the paper. "It's hard to make out. A lot of it is scratched out." "But can you read it?" Mercury prodded. "I think so. Hmmm..." Venus jogged to the top of the page and began to read aloud. " 'Ideas for SM Fanfic.' What's that?" "I think 'SM' stands for Sailor Moon," Mars said looking at the various pictures and assorted Sailor Moon paraphernalia in the room. "Gee, you think?" Jupiter said with a smile as she walked past the Sailor Moon pencil case to the Sailor Moon bubble bath. The tall scout looked at the likeness of her friend and laughed. "Hey! I don't really look like that!" Sailor Moon yelled. "Do I?" " 'Fanfic' is short for 'fan-written-fiction'. A fanfic is a story written by amateur authors," Mercury explained while looking at a very large desktop computer. "Wow! So someone's writing about me?" Sailor Moon squealed with delight. "They write about all of us," Venus answered as she walked down the page to read more writing. "Well, at least this author is trying to. Get a load of some of these ideas: 'Resurrect the four generals.' " "What? And have to fight them all over again?" Mars ran up to Venus to read along with her. "Bring 'em on!" Jupiter said with glee as she brandished a Sailor Moon pencil. "We'll blast them back to the Negaverse just like we did before!" " 'Kill off Sailor Moon -- do a reaction story,' " Venus read. "WHAT?!?" Sailor Moon nearly fainted. "Relax, Meatball Head," Mars said reassuringly. "It's just a story idea that's been scratched out. It's not really going to happen." "Easy for you to say," Sailor Moon huffed as she took the pencil from Jupiter. "You're not the one being killed off. Where was that idea?" She planted the pencil on the paper and began scribbling furiously to cover up the writing. " 'Make Molly a Sailor Scout,' " Venus continued. "Interesting idea," Mars commented. "I don't know how she'd have the time to be a Sailor Scout when she's always being attacked by Negaverse monsters," Jupiter said under her breath as she opened a deck of Sailor Moon playing cards. " 'Introduce a long lost relative of Sailor Moon from the Silver Millennium.' " "Oooh! Can I have a twin sister?" Sailor Moon tugged at Sailor Venus' arm. "How about an evil twin sister! That happens all the time on soap operas!" Mars rolled her eyes. " 'Romance story--' " "Oh I love romances!" Sailor Moon happily twirled around in circles. " 'Darien and Serena--' " "I can just picture the kissing scene now." Sailor Moon sighed causing Mars to shake her head. " 'Amy and Greg--' " "Did I just hear my name?" the blue haired scout called out from the other side of the computer. " 'Raye and Chad--' " "WHAT?!? Me and HIM?!? Where's that pencil?" Mars fumed. " 'Lita and question mark, Mina and question mark,' " Venus finished. "What? We don't get guys? What about Andrew?" Jupiter stopped flipping through the playing cards. "He's already dating Rita," Venus was feeling a little disappointed herself. It was ironic how in ancient mythology Venus was the goddess of love, and yet Sailor Venus and her alterego didn't have much luck in that department. "Yeah, but this story is fiction. I could be dating anyone I want. Or at least anyone the author wants," Jupiter said. "I know what you mean," Venus placed her hands on her hips and kept reading and walking. " 'New romantic interest for Serena--' " Sailor Moon decided change the subject to help lighten the mood. "Really? I can't imagine ever leaving Darien but it would be way wicked if someone were madly in love with me," she gushed. " 'Or for Darien--' " Venus added with a sly wink to Mars. "Oh no he doesn't! Mars pass me the pencil!" " 'Explore Silver Millennium past.' " Venus continued reading as if nothing had happened. "That might be kinda cool. You know, learning about our past or this author's version of our past," Jupiter said as she admired a playing card with a picture of her. "What if this alternate past isn't a true reflection of who we are?" Mars asked. "Doesn't matter," Mercury said peering around the computer. "Since it's fiction there can be an infinite number of alternate realities. The only limit is the author's imagination." " 'Explore Crystal Tokyo future.' " "Hey that sounds like fun." Jupiter held up a playing card with a picture of all the Inner Scouts for everyone to see. " 'Crossover--' " "What's that?" Sailor Moon asked. Mercury leaned against the monitor. "It's when you take characters from one fictional piece and combine them with characters from another fictional piece. It makes for interesting group dynamics to say the least. You have to be a pretty good author to pull it off well." Sailor Moon turned to her friend. "Mercury, how do you know so much about this stuff?" Mercury winked. "There's more to me than just brains and bubbles. Just because I'm smart doesn't mean I'm not well rounded. I check out the Internet too, you know." At the mention of the word Internet, Sailor Moon had visions of Melvin. She shook her head to lose the mental picture. "Wait a second." Mars held up her hand. "Are you saying we're fictional characters? That we don't really exist?" Mercury took a moment to carefully phrase her answer. "We do exist. As long as people write about us, read about us--" "Buy our merchandise, watch our videos," Jupiter interrupted as she pulled out a Sailor Moon video and music CD. "And think about us," Mercury continued without missing a beat despite Jupiter's remarks. "As long as people still believe in love and justice, we'll always exist." She hoped that calmed her friends. Venus smiled and turned back to the sheet. Mercury's explanation was good enough for her. "As I was saying: 'Crossover: Sailor Scouts and Star Trek--' " "Hey, I like that TV show," Mercury said with a smile. " 'Sailor Scouts and Ranma--' " "You know, I've never been to Nerima..." Mars said wistfully. " 'Sailor Scouts and Power Rangers--' " Jupiter laughed at the idea. " 'Introduce a new Sailor Squad.' " "A new team to fight alongside?" Sailor Moon asked. "Does this new team have to be all-girl?" Jupiter asked with a bit of cynicism in her voice. "That's all the writing on this page," Venus said as she pulled up one corner. "Mars give me a hand with the other corner and let's see if this person wrote anything else." "Yeah, maybe there's a clue for getting out of here." Mars grabbed the paper's edge and together with Venus they managed to turn the page. Two: The Wrath of Writer's Block. "Hey there isn't any more writing anywhere!" Venus exclaimed. "But all the ideas have been scratched out. What's the author going to write about?" Three: The Search For a Plotline. "And how are we supposed to get out of here?" Mars asked. "It would be nice to be back to our normal sizes again," Jupiter added looking eye-to-eye with a Sailor Moon action figure. "Hey Mercury!" Sailor Moon called out. "Do you have any ideas? And what are you doing over there?" "I've found something that you guys had better come and see." Four: The Voyage to a Homepage. "What are we looking at?" Sailor Moon asked once they were all assembled in front of the computer screen. "It's someone's homepage," Mercury explained. "And it's dedicated to us. It's got lots of pictures and fanfic. Plus, it's not the only one." Mercury pushed on the mouse to click on the "Links" icon and deeply wished that the keyboard was equipped with a TouchPad or a trackball instead. A long list of Sailor Moon links appeared on the screen. "All of these titles are pages about us?" Sailor Moon was amazed. "It's probably not all of them." Mercury sat down on the mouse. "I've got to warn you though. Not all the pages about us are kind to us." "What do you mean?" Venus asked. "The world is made up of all kinds of people," Mars said. "Everyone's entitled to their opinion and the Internet is all about free speech. Some people may not like us." "But I wouldn't take it personally." Jupiter put an arm around Sailor Moon. "Come on, let's check out what people are writing about us." Five: The Final Chapter? After reading several fanfics (some good, some not so good) Jupiter stood up and stretched. "Wow! That last story was really cool. I had some pretty good lines there." "And you and I got boyfriends in the end, too," Venus said with a smile. "See the power of fanfic?" Mercury asked her friends. "We've read about our children from the future, two different Sailor Squads, and gotten new powerups. We had thoughts, we had pasts, we had relationships. We get to see what people think of us by seeing what they write about us." "I think it's all very flattering," Sailor Moon said blushing. Everyone agreed. "How long have we been here?" Mars asked. "A few hours, at least," Mercury said looking at the Sailor Moon clock on the desk. "I think it's time we went home," Sailor Moon said. "Well how do we do that?" Mars gratefully took Jupiter's outstretched hand to stand up. "Maybe we have a job to do here," Sailor Moon suggested. "You mean, there's a Negaverse monster for us to fight?" Jupiter looked around the room and assumed a fighting stance. "Power down, Jupiter." Sailor Moon ran up to her tall friend. "I mean that our job here may be to help this author write a fanfic about us." Six: The Undiscovered Ideas. "Remind me what your grade in Creative Writing was, Meatball Head," Mars said. Sailor Moon blew a raspberry at her friend, then jogged over to the sheet of Sailor Moon Fanfic Ideas and picked up the pencil. "Come on, you guys. I bet we can come up with a few good ideas." "Okay: One, how are you going to write with a pencil that's taller than you, and two, what makes you think this person won't notice that the writing isn't theirs?" Mars asked not to discourage Sailor Moon's initiative but to make her reevaluate it. "Good points," Sailor Moon admitted as she put the pencil down. "What about using the computer?" Venus asked. "Like leaving him e-mail." "That could work," Mercury said as she walked over to the mouse. "But first we have to find out this person's address." "That shouldn't be a problem for a computer genius like you, Mercury," Sailor Moon said gently pushing her away from the mouse. "Take a look at the screen and tell us where we have to push this mouse, okay?" "No arguments, Mercury," Venus warned as she and the other Scouts took positions around the mouse. Mercury smiled at her friends and moved to get a better view of the screen. Within moments, the Scouts had the information they were looking for. Then they sat down in a circle and began brainstorming. "What about a story about us being shrunk down just as we are now?" Jupiter suggested. "I can just see it," Venus giggled. " 'Honey, I Shrunk the Sailor Scouts.' " "What if we traveled back to the time of knights in shining armour, wizards, and princesses, and things like that?" Sailor Moon asked. Mars took the idea and ran with it. "Or to the wild west? Or to the time of dinosaurs? The Roaring Twenties, the Victorian Era; there are lots of time periods that would make cool settings." "And there are lots of places to set the story in," Jupiter added. "As a piece of fiction, the entire universe is the author's playground." A smile crossed her face. "Or more to the point, the entire universe is OUR playground." Seven: Generations. "This person could write about our parents from the Silver Millennium," Sailor Moon suggested. "Or our children," Venus added. "Or the Outer Scouts," Mars said. "And it doesn't have to be about big battle scenes and powered-up attacks," Jupiter said. "It can be about character development. Hey, why are you guys looking at me like that?" Eight: First Draft. Once the Scouts finished composing their e-mail, Mercury sent their list of fanfic ideas to the author. "You have mail" the computer chimed, signaling that the transmission had been successful. A noise was heard outside the door. "Someone's coming!" Sailor Moon whispered. "Everyone hide!" Mars commanded as she grabbed Sailor Moon's arm to pull her behind a stuffed Sailor Moon doll. The door opened and in walked a young man talking into a cordless phone while carrying a slice of pizza. He went straight to the computer. Jupiter looked at him and her eyes began to gloss over. Venus noticed her friend's reaction and lightly slapped the tall scout's arm. "I do NOT want to hear that he looks like you-know-who!" Venus hissed. "But he does," Jupiter said innocently. "Mmmm..." Sailor Moon's stomach rumbled. "I'm so hungry! That pizza smells so good." Mars put her finger to her lips and motioned for the others to listen. "Hang on a sec, I have some new mail," he said. After a few moments of silence he spoke up again. "Did you send me this? It's a bunch of fanfic ideas. Some of them are pretty interesting. Listen to this..." He read a few of the items on the list and began talking animatedly about one of them. "You didn't send this e-mail to me? But you're the only one who knew about the immense writer's block I've been suffering for the past few days." He paused while the other person spoke. "Well, there isn't a return address on it. How am I supposed to thank whoever sent it?" he asked. "Just write a good story," Sailor Moon said quietly. "Okay, I've got to go and start on my story right away. This idea is too good to let sit. I'll talk to you later." He hung up the phone and began typing. "I guess now that our work here is done, we can go home," Venus said. "Like I've been saying all along, 'How do we do that?'" Mars asked. "Don't worry," Mercury said as she focused her Visor on something in the distance that was quickly approaching. "I have the feeling we'll be home before you know it." "And we'll be back to our normal size?" Jupiter asked. It doesn't hurt to make sure, she thought. Mercury nodded. "I don't know what we'd do without you, Mercury," Sailor Moon said to her friend. Mercury smiled in thanks. "Okay guys, ready?" "Ready!" The other Scouts answered. "Here we go..." The End.