Love reading SMoo, but sometimes wish the story turned out differently? Well, here's your chance to control the fate of the infamous Sailor Senshi in a brand-new adventure! All you have to do is read, and whenever you reach the end of a segment, you'll have the chance to choose one of several different ways of continuing the story.
WARNING: Some choices you make may end the story in horrible, bloody deaths (although in some cases, *cough* Bob *cough* that might not be such a bad thing). Whenever you come to an untimely end, you always have the option of going back and choosing a different path. Unless, of course, you'd prefer the untimely ends. In which case, enjoy yourself! There are a lot of them. ^.^
“I can’t believe you guys are going trick-or-treating!” Bob yelled to the other senshi as they headed out the door and stepped onto the darkening street. “I mean, how lame is that?”
Valerie rolled her eyes and shot an annoyed look at the obnoxious blonde. “Oh, please! You’re just jealous because we didn’t invite you to come along.”
“That’s not true!” Bob protested. She crossed her arms over her chest and frowned. “It’s not like I actually wanted to dress up in a really cool costume and run door to door like a psychotic sugar-induced child demanding that neighbors give me incredibly fattening but oh so deliciously yummy chocolate bars and chewy candy corn and —”
“SHUT UP!” The others yelled in unison. Bob stopped mid-whine, a stunned expression on her face.
“We get your point!” Mallory cried. “You don’t need to go on and on and on—”
“And on and on and on and on,” Eva chimed in.
Vanessa stared at Bob, a mixture of pity and - well, really just pity - on her face. She ushered Eva, Mallory, and Valerie together in a group huddle. “Maybe we should let her come along,” she suggested.
“Why?” Mallory asked, making a face.
“Because it’s the nice thing to do.”
“Nice?” Valerie echoed. She turned to Eva. “What is this nice she is referring to, and what does it have to do with me or anything I enjoy doing?”
Eva shrugged. “I think she means we should invite her along because she’s our friend.”
“Friend? What is this funny language you speak?” A light dawned in Valerie’s eyes. “Oh! You mean invite her along so that she will get lots of candy and then eat it all and then become enormously obese so that we may ridicule her more easily!” Giggling hysterically, she nudged Eva. “What a plan! How very clever you are!”
Eva glanced at Vanessa and Mallory. “Why is she acting stranger than usual?”
“It’s her New Year’s resolution,” Mallory explained. “Valerie gave up chocolate exactly ten months ago, and though she swears that nothing with even the slightest hint of chocolate will pass her lips until January, I believe that tonight may prove to be her undoing.”
“Wow,” Eva said. “Thanks for explaining absolutely nothing.”
“Anytime.”
“So,” Vanessa said slowly. “Do you want to invite Bob to come along or not?”
“Thanks for letting me come along, you guys!” Bob said cheerfully as she skipped down the driveway while the others trudged behind. “This is going to be so much fun!”
“Yeah, yeah,” Valerie grumbled. Out of Bob’s hearing, she muttered, “I wish you guys had gone with my plan to leave her behind and force her to give out non-edible toothbrushes for all of the trick-or-treaters. Then we could have knocked and egged the house when she answered the door.”
“But it’s your house,” Vanessa reminded her.
“Oh, right. Well then, we’ll just have to egg my neighbor’s house instead.”
Eva adjusted the long, shiny cape she had borrowed from Niki to complete her wizard outfit and looked at Bob who was wearing a long, black dress and a pointy hat. “What are you supposed to be?”
“A witch,” Bob replied. “Can’t you tell?”
“You didn’t need to dress up to be a b*tch - er - witch,” Mallory said. “But I really do love your costume,” she added quickly hoping that her first remark had gone unnoticed. It hadn’t.
“Just what was that supposed to mean?” an infuriated Bob yelled.
Mallory’s eyes widened innocently. “That I like your costume.”
“But what did you say before that?”
“Simply that because your theatrical talents are so . . . plentiful, even without a costume, you could accurately and distinguishedly portray the part of a witch,” Mallory stuttered incomprehensibly.
“Oh.” Bob smiled, thrilled that someone had finally noticed (and appreciated) one of her many artistic gifts. “Gee, thanks.”
“Nice cover,” Valerie whispered to Mallory. “The B.S. really impressed me this time. It reminded me of writing English essays about books I never bothered reading.”
“Speaking of B.S . . .” Eva looked at each of her companions and then at the empty spot between Mallory and Valerie. “Where’s Niki?”
“Oh, duh!” Mallory snapped her fingers. “We forgot Niki!”
Vanessa nodded. “That’s right. She said that she was working on an impressive, super secret costume and that we should wait up for her because she wasn’t done yet.”
“Here I am you guys!” Niki yelled. “Don’t you like my costume?” The others turned, but no one was there.
“Oh my gosh!” Bob said. “She’s dressed as an invisible person! Now why didn’t I think of that?”
“No, moron!” Niki yelled. “I’m up here. Yoo hoo!”
Valerie looked up and she could see Niki hanging out the second story window. “Niki, you’re a MAN!”
“Yes, I know,” Niki yelled back down.
Valerie shook her head. “Sorry, I said that wrong. Niki, you’re upstairs!”
“Right,” Niki said. “I’m coming down!”
“The stairs, I hope!” Vanessa cried.
“Nope. I’m far too lazy. The window will do.”
“I wish you would step back from that ledge, my friend,” Mallory called up to her.
“You could cut ties with all the lies that you been livin’ in,” Valerie joined her.
“And if you do not want to see me again —”
“Don’t do it, Niki!” Eva yelled, cutting Mallory off before she could serenade Niki any longer. “It’s too dangerous! You’ll die!”
Niki paused, ready to jump, one leg already out the window. “Good point. I like being alive. Then again . . .”
“Ha ha!” Valerie laughed evilly as she slammed the door in Bob’s tearful face. “That was fun! We should leave Bob out of things more often.” She jogged to catch up with Vanessa, Mallory, and Eva who were already standing at the edge of the driveway.
Vanessa gazed down the dark, deserted street. “Are we sure we’ve got the day right? I don’t see any more trick-or-treaters.”
“That’s because this is Valerie’s neighborhood,” Mallory told her. “A lot of old people live here.”
“Old people and crazy couples who try and run over each other and then bail themselves out of jail.” Valerie shook her head. “Oh, no, wait. That’s Mallory’s neighborhood.”
“Which is why we’re not trick-or-treating there,” Mallory explained. “It’s a simple safety precaution. Halloween plus crazy people equals BIG mistake.”
“Speaking of crazy people . . .” Eva looked at each of her companions and then at the empty spot between Mallory and Valerie. “I think we’re missing someone.”
“Surely it’s not someone important,” Valerie said, “because look, I’m right here.”
“Oh, duh!” Mallory snapped her fingers. “We forgot Niki!”
Vanessa nodded. “That’s right. She said that she was working on an impressive, super secret costume and that we should wait up for her because she wasn’t done yet.”
“Let’s go back and tell her to hurry up before it gets even later,” Mallory suggested.
“But we’re already at the end of the driveway. Wouldn’t it be easier to go on without her?” Valerie pointed out.
“You know what?” Niki said. “I’ve thought about it, and I’ve decided, to hell with caution! I’m jumping!” She pulled her entire body back inside the house and disappeared momentarily. A second later she reappeared as she took a running head start and practically flew through the window.
Unfortunately for Niki, she had really terrible depth perception and did not realize that the window she leaped out of was nearly fifteen feet off the ground (she thought it was more like four). She tried to bend her knees to soften the landing, but with little result.
There was a thud. Followed by a sickening crack. And then a yelp of pain.
“Hello up there!” Niki cried from her sprawled out position on the ground. The others ran to her side. “I seem to have fallen down the side of the house. I’m still alive, but I am very badly injured. I think my legs might be broken, but I’ll try to stand up.”
“No, Niki!” Mallory yelled. “Don’t do it!” She didn’t listen. There was another sickening crack followed by another yelp of pain.
“Yes, they are broken,” Niki said. “Perhaps you could toss me a bandaid or some antibacterial creme. I’m in an extraordinarily large amount of pain. The bone has gone through the skin. I feel it might be gangrenous. The wound is beginning to smell a little like almonds which is not good.”
“I’ll go call the ambulance,” Vanessa said.
An hour later (when the ambulance finally showed up), instead of running around the neighborhood with bags full of candy, the senshi accompanied the injured Niki to the hospital. They stayed there the entire night. It was a relief to discover that Niki wouldn’t die, and that aside from two very broken legs, she was entirely fine. However, they totally missed out on what may have been a very cool Halloween adventure. Too bad. Maybe next year.
Alas! What an untimely end! Maybe you should go Back and try again.
“Oh, come on Val,” Mallory said. “The walk’s not that long.”
Valerie looked down at the gravel driveway and then up at the house which looked very small and very far away. She looked down and up again, and suddenly the house was right in front of her. “You’re right, it’s not that far away. My depth perception’s just been screwing with me again.”
In actuality, Valerie had subconsciously moved closer to the house on her own two feet and for some strange reason just didn’t realize it, but no one wanted to mention that fact.
Vanessa was about to ring the doorbell, but before she even raised her finger, the door swung wide open and an over joyous Bob flew out and tackled Vanessa to the ground. “I knew you’d come back for me!” Bob yelled, nearly crushing the startled Vanessa. “You’re such a pal!”
Vanessa was flattered that her unintentional act of friendship had meant so much to Bob, and she was going to say something along those lines, but what came out instead was, “Please get off of me. I can’t breathe.”
“Whoops,” Bob said, standing up and helping the nearly crushed Vanessa to her feet. “I didn’t mean to be so overzealous, I was just really excited that you came back for me.”
“Actually,” Mallory said, “we came back for—”
“You of course,” Eva said quickly, cutting Mallory off. “But we were wondering if Niki also wanted to join us. We kind of forgot her earlier.”
Bob smiled brightly. “Of course she’ll want to come too! I haven’t actually seen it yet, but I hear her costume is quite impressive. But I can’t imagine what’s taking her so long. Let’s go find out!”
“You’re right, Valerie,” Eva said. “We are already down your incredibly long (and dangerous) driveway. It would be silly and an enormous waste of time if we were to walk that entire distance yet again just to go back for Niki.”
“I agree,” Vanessa said, nodding. “Remember the old saying, the early bird catches the worm?” Everyone was confused. “It applies in this instance because the earlier we go out trick or treating, the more candy we get.”
“Right,” Mallory added. “And, you snooze, you lose. Or better yet, you take too long making your costume, we won’t bother waiting around for you.”
“Well, now that we’re all in agreement,” Valerie said. “Let’s go.” They took several more steps down the driveway and then stopped. They turned and looked back to the house in longing.
“It feels strange leaving without her, doesn’t it?” Mallory asked.
“Yeah,” Vanessa agreed. “Niki possesses that . . . absurd personality that makes her a . . . commodity at any major . . . happening.” She shrugged. “It’s hard to put it in words.”
Eva nodded. “I think I can sum it up for you,” she said. “It’s just not the same without Niki.”
“Tru’ tha’.” Valerie smiled. “I guess, when you think about it, the many, many yards we have to travel in order to walk all the way down the driveway, really aren’t so bad. Niki is worth it.”
“You know what?” Niki said. “I’ve thought about it a lot, and I’ve decided that perhaps jumping would not be the most intelligent thing to do. Now realizing the error of my ways, I will carefully crawl back inside the window and wait safely inside for you to come up and get me.”
“I can’t believe that she’s making us walk all the way back through the house and all the way up the stairs,” Valerie grumbled.
“I suppose it’s more appealing than the other option,” Mallory said.
“Which is what?”
“Picking up little pieces of splattered Niki off the ground underneath the window.”
“Good point.”
Inside the house, the senshi made their way to Valerie’s bedroom where Niki had spent the entire day locked away from civilization while creating what she believed would be the most amazing Halloween costume ever constructed by the hand of man. Or woman, whatever the case may be.
Valerie reached for the door handle and stopped herself. It felt weird knocking on her own door, but who knew what on earth Niki was doing in there? Knocking was the safest option. She knocked.
There was no reply.
Valerie jiggled the knob but it was locked. And without a hanger or bobby pins, there was no way she could get the door open. She stepped back from the door. “Someone go check the ground outside the window for me.”
Mallory’s eyes widened. “You don’t think that she jumped, do you?”
“The door’s locked, no one’s responding, and it’s Niki we’re dealing with,” Valerie replied. “Thinking is pointless and speculating is just a waste of time.”
“I could try to break it down,” Bob suggested. “I mean, I’m no Bentfence, but it’s worth a shot.” Bob rolled up the sleeves of her witch’s costume and ran at the door - the moment that Niki opened it. Unable to stop herself in time, Bob surged through the door and continued until she ran into the opposite wall. Bob hit the floor like a sack of potatoes.
“So that’s what a sack of potatoes looks like!” Niki said cheerfully. But due to the wooden chopsticks protruding from her mouth, what came out was more along the lines of, “gd fdhak teog o feij ks oeufjkawh jdsa lajw!”
Valerie pulled the chopsticks from Niki’s mouth and, holding the non-slobbery end, whacked Niki over the head with them.”
“Hey! That was unnecessary!” An indigent Niki cried out.
“You had us worried when you didn’t answer the door,” Vanessa said.
“Valerie’s merely showing you how relieved she is that you are perfectly fine by beating you over the head with little wooden sticks,” Eva added.
“It’s hard to talk with chopsticks in your mouth,” Niki said wisely. Despite the bruises forming on her head, she grinned. “So, do you guys absolutely love my costume, or what?”
The others stared at her. Niki was wearing what appeared to be a large brown sheet stuffed with an enormous amount of cotton and sown at the arms and legs in fin-like shapes. Large plastic whiskers were glued to her cheeks.
“What are you supposed to be?” Mallory asked.
Niki rolled her eyes. “Can’t you tell?” The others were stumped. “Maybe this will help.” She shoved the chopsticks back in her mouth. The others were still stumped. She pulled the chopsticks out and scowled. Niki decided to give them a hint. “What is the ONLY animal that I am obsessed with that has rather large teeth protruding from its mouth?”
“A sabertooth tiger?” Mallory guessed.
“Damn it, I’m a WALRUS!”
“Oh right!” Mallory said, obviously trying to make up for her stupidity. “The whole chopsticks thing . . . dead giveaway. You know, I was only kidding about the tiger.”
Niki glared. “SURE you were.”
Leaving the house the second time proved to be a lot harder than the first. Niki had to waddle very slowly and since she insisted that she go first, the others had no choice but to follow behind because her enormous costume filled up nearly the entire hallway. When they reached the stairs, Niki had to roll to get down them, and it required all of the senshi to physically shove her through the front door at the bottom of the steps.
By the time they made it back down the driveway, the dark and foreboding street seemed even darker and more foreboding than it had before. There were still no trick-or-treaters in sight and because of this, there were very few houses with porch lights on.
“I still think we got the date wrong,” Vanessa said.
“Let me check my watch.” Eva’s watch glowed bright green for a few seconds. “Yep, it’s definitely the thirty-first.”
Vanessa gave Eva a weird look. “Let me get this straight,” she said. “You can read the date on your watch without any problems, but reading the time is completely out of the question?” Eva nodded. “Weird.”
“Okay guys,” Valerie said, taking charge. She pointed to the road that stretched as far as they could see in both directions. “We’ve got two options here. We can go to the right where I guarantee after a few short blocks we will meet up with several more trick-or-treaters on the well lit and populated side of my neighborhood. Or we can go to the left where the gravel street will eventually dead-end at a treacherous dirt road that winds perilously into the woods towards almost certain danger.”
She gave the others a few moments to consider the choices. After a minute of silence, Valerie continued. “So, what’s it going to be? You decide.”
“Gee. Let’s think about this for a minute,” Niki said slowly, not without a hint of sarcasm. She held up one hand. “On one hand, we have good times, mounds of candy and dozens of unsuspecting, little children to steal even more candy from.” She held up her other hand. “And on the other hand, we have death, destruction, and mayhem. Interesting choices.”
“So, what’s it going to be?” Valerie said again.
“Good times, of course!” Niki cried. “Let’s save the death, destruction, and mayhem for another night.”
Taking Niki’s advice, the senshi veered off to the right and skipped happily down the road. Within minutes they reached the well lit and populated part of the neighborhood where several trick-or-treaters were busy running door to door, just as Valerie had predicted.
For the next several hours, the senshi had the time of their lives, taking the freely offered candy from Valerie’s neighbors and taking the less-freely offered candy from dozens of unsuspecting, little children.
It was already past midnight when the senshi finally made their way back to Valerie’s house. They decided to cap off their night with a movie fest of the best DVDs ever made (‘Moulin Rouge’, ‘Zoolander’, and ‘Josie and the Pussycats’ to name a few). Of course, they were all fast asleep five minutes into the first movie, but that’s beside the point. All in all, that Halloween night (though not exceptionally perilous), turned out to be the best one of the year.
Well! That was a fun way to end a great Halloween! Do you want to go Back and try again?
“Gee. Let’s think about this for a minute,” Niki said slowly, not without a hint of sarcasm. She held up one hand. “On one hand, we have good times, mounds of candy and dozens of unsuspecting, little children to steal even more candy from.” She held up her other hand. “And on the other hand, we have death, destruction, and mayhem. Interesting choices.”
“So, what’s it going to be?” Valerie said again.
“Death, destruction, and mayhem, of course!” Niki cried. “Let’s save the good times for another night.”
Mallory looked unsure. “As fun as that sounds, guys, I just don’t think it’s such a good idea. Don’t you remember what happened the LAST time we went down a path that led to almost certain death, destruction, and mayhem?”
Valerie tilted her head slightly to the side and squinted her eyes because that always helped her to remember far off times. “You mean last Thursday?”
“Oh, right!” Eva chimed in. “But the likelihood of us running into a giant sea serpent and Bob nearly drowning in a vast boiling pot of tomato sauce AGAIN, is practically slim to none.”
“But wouldn’t it be fun if it did?” Niki said, a wicked smile on her face. “Mwhahaha.”
Valerie nodded in agreement. “Next time I’ll remember to bring my camera. I think that Bob drowning in a vast pot of boiling tomato soup would make a nice addition to my ‘Wouldn’t It Be Cool If’ wall of photographs.”
“Now, that’s not very nice!” Vanessa admonished Valerie while holding Bob back as the vicious blonde lunged forward in an attempt to rip out all of Valerie’s hair. “Really, the lot of you should be ashamed of yourself!” she cried, this time speaking to all of them. “You know, one day you’ll regret being so mean to those we should pity rather than abuse.”
“Yeah,” Bob said, glaring at everyone but Vanessa. “And when that day comes, it’ll be me pointing and laughing as you drown in a vast pot of boiling tomato sauce, rather than the other way around!”
Together, the senshi trooped down the left side of Valerie’s dark street which grew gradually darker (and more foreboding) the further they traveled from civilization (or what passed for civilization in Loserville). For several minutes, the senshi walked down the road in silence, only vaguely noting that there wasn’t another soul to be seen on the deserted street.
As the senshi progressed towards certain doom, the houses that lined the street became spaced further and further apart until they were overcome by a thick, desolate forest of slanting pine trees in which not a single house had been built.
A chilling wind sprang up suddenly, noisily rustling the leaves of the trees. Mallory glanced up to the treetops as the wind picked up strength, violently knocking several branches and a few small tree-dwelling animals to the ground. “I have a really bad feeling about this,” Mallory shivered folding her arms across her chest. “Something doesn’t feel right.”
Valerie licked a finger and held it out in the air. “It looks like it’s going to rain,” she predicted. Of course, it wasn’t much of a prediction since she heard earlier on the news that there was a zero percent chance of rain that night. She (smartly) assumed that the weather forecasters were idiots and that the opposite weather conditions were bound to be true.
“Of course it’s going to rain!” Niki rolled her eyes. “This is Lousyana. It’s not like the weather has anything better to do. If it doesn’t rain, the sky will eventually die of boredom, just like us.”
“Hah!” Vanessa scoffed. “I’ll have you know that I set my kitchen table on fire this morning and read the weather in the flames. There is absolutely NO chance of –”
At that moment, there was a great burst of thunder and the sky erupted suddenly into a torrential downpour of rain.
“ – It NOT raining tonight,” Vanessa finished lamely as the rain soaked quickly through her priestess costume.
Eva held her empty candy bag over her head in an attempt to stay dry, but it offered little protection from Lousyana’s daily monsoon.
“We need to get out of the rain before we all catch pneumonia and die,” Mallory, the sensible one, pointed out.
“Well, should we go back to my house or continue down the road to see if there is shelter near by?” Valerie asked.
“Let’s go back to Valerie’s as quickly as possible before we drown in the below-sea-level ditches that are already overflowing with rain water,” Bob, the evil bit– er, witch suggested.
Nodding in synchronization, the senshi turned back towards Valerie’s house. As luck would have it, at that very moment, lightning struck a nearby telephone pole, and it came crashing to the ground, straight across the road. The senshi leapt back in surprise (and fear) as the power lines sparked with live electric energy.
“Don’t you hate when that happens?” Mallory sighed in frustration.
“Don’t you hate when people steal your lines?” Valerie muttered darkly under her breath.
“Any more clever ideas, blondie?” Niki said, glaring at Bob.
“Well, we could always try climbing over the pole,” Bob replied. “It’s not like we can be electrocuted by power lines on the ground.”
“You moron!” Niki cried. “Have you NEVER seen a CLECO commercial?” As if to emphasize her point, the power lines shivered threateningly along the ground, heading for the large puddle of water that the girls were standing in.
“I have an idea,” Vanessa said, hiking up her drenched skirt and stepping away from the puddle. “Run away! Run away!”
Sighing once again in synchronization, the senshi turned and began running as fast as their vertically challenged, out of shape little legs could carry them towards certain death, destruction, and mayhem.
Through the pouring rain, the girls hurried down the street, which abruptly dead ended at a treacherous dirt road, just as Valerie had said it would. They sloshed down the dirt path which was thick with mud from the monsoon, searching desperately around for any shelter from the storm, but there was no house (to break into) anywhere in sight.
Bob suggested that they wait out the lightning storm under the tallest tree in the forest, but the other senshi, while not normally common-sensical, had seen enough PSAs to know better. They ignored the blonde as usual.
The further from the main road they ran, the closer the trees grew together until they had completely overwhelmed the dirt path. The senshi found themselves fighting their way through the rain, mud, and thick undergrowth of devil’s snare, hoping against hope that there would be a house awaiting them once the forest eventually receded away.
The dirt-n-mud path finally came to an end at a patch of sticker bushes that grew taller than the short girls could see. Not wanting to ruin their homemade costumes and/or injure themselves, the senshi grabbed Bob by her unnaturally colored braid and swung her into the sticker bushes with such force that the blond went flying through, creating a large enough Bob-shaped hole for the other senshi to walk through with comfort.
Bob picked herself off the ground with difficulty, glaring at the others and muttering curses under her breath.
“Thanks, Bob,” Vanessa said cheerfully, patting the girl on the back. Of course, this gesture of friendliness only injured Bob’s already bruised and bloodied back, making the blonde glare and curse some more. He he.
“Look, everyone!” Niki attempted to say through her chopsticks-shaped walrus tusks. “We’ve found an old, abandoned, dilapidated, likely-to-fall-apart-at-any-moment-and-crush-us-to-death haunted house! Surely this would make excellent shelter for the night!”