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“Ne, ne, Shannon-sama”

“Hmm?”

“heheheheheeeeeee…”

*sigh*

“That’s one of those monsters from my dream at the Lithic Pavilion.”

“I think something weird is going on again.”

“Is it the Halloween monsters?”

“Nope, don’t think so, but we better be ready anyway.”

“Shannon-sama!”

“I know! I know! We have a new Varcarel Jade comic page up, and it’s in color!”

“Slick.”

“I knew we’d have the best update today. Have fun minna! Ja!”

“Another page, huh?”

“Yep! It’s Varcarel Jade Page Twelve!”

“And don’t forget to jump back and check page four for a nice introduction to our official charity. Rock Camp is win.”

“We’re going to have articles to go with all of our comic pages soon. Don’t miss the next page. I hear it’s going to be super cool! Have fun everyone!”

“Ja!”

“There. It’s from the game with the kitties.”

“But there’s no kitties in it.”

“There’s a dragon! I saw them flying!”

“And horses.”

“And uhhh… undead spiders and a dwarf.”

“But where are the kitties?”

“You laughed at me when I predicted this.”

“heheheeeeee….”

“Z-bot to Hana. This is a Gamepowa Video Alert. Transmitting now.”

“Outstanding, Z-bot. Continue search. Acey out.”

“Ooh, is that the one that turns into a kitty?”

“Not sure but he sure likes to zap giants with that lightning, huh?”

“Talitha-chan, let’s go find the one that turns into a kitty.”

“Okay.”

“And so the duel of the video alerts begins.”

“Why do I get the feeling this is going to end in mass confusion?”

“Ha! Because everything we do is mass confusion!”

“Well, yeah, that too.”

“Talitha-chan found another video for a LadyStar Video Alert!”

“Wait a second, I thought Sailor Moon was animated?”

“It was a live action show too. It’s called Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon. The girls in this video were all the main characters.”

“A music video of a song with a French title, sung in Japanese and subtitled in English?”

“Yeah, but it’s Sailor Moon.”

“You savvy?”

*giggle*

“Did you know that our comic site has extra sites where there’s lots of stuff and even sample pages? There’s even a site called The Web Comic List where we gots two pages!”

“Yeah, the first page is for the book side, which is this site, and then there’s another page for our web comic.”

“And they both have number buttons! Looky!”

“Hey, we used to have that one over on the left side next to the vote button didn’t we?”

“Yeah! That’s the button for our book site, and it says which rank we are from aaaaaaall the comics on the whole Web Comic List site.”

“Wait a second, there’s almost 11,000 comics on that site.”

“Guess we’re in there slugging then, because we’re almost in the top 1500!”

“Yay for us! Then we gots a whole different button for the comic site, even though it looks the same.”

“Coming along, isn’t it? We’re getting there, sports fans!”

“Our friends can go and vote for us too. Add our sites to your favorites list and help us get higher in the rankings. We have two pages on the Webcomic list, The Magical and Mysterious World of LadyStar and LadyStar: The Varcarel Jade.”

“Slick.”

“We also got a page on a site called ‘Comicspace’ where we listed both sites again. It’s LadyStar on Comicspace and people on that site can add us to their friend list. We already got 13 friends!”

“More coming up too. I hear we’ve got a new listing coming up on a big site, and we still have our Buzzcomix Vote Button.”

“We got 35 votes!”

“Yeah! And the more votes we get the higher in that list we go too. We’re going to be the best web comic because of all our friends that visit us. Be sure to vote for us if you can! Ja ne minna-san!”

“Check out Goofy with all the introductions to our books!”

“She’s the new spokesgirl.”

“Yay! We gots a comic update! Varcarel Jade Page Eleven is new!”

“There’s always something new on our site.”

“Sure is. Have a great weekend everyone!”

LadyStar is the story of a group of girls who each have a powerful weapon they wear disguised as a priceless jeweled treasure. With their magical weapons, Jessica Hoshi and her friends can transform into the Ajan Warriors, champion defenders of the enchanted realm of Aventar!

“Hi! I’m Jessica Hoshi! If you like stories about action and adventure and discovering magical treasures and fighting evil monsters, you’ll like our new web comic the best! It’s the story of when we fought some yucky monsters called liches! Me and my friends have lots of exciting adventures together! You can read LadyStar: The Varcarel Jade for free! Right in your browser! The comic is updated twice a week with new pages! So tell all your friends and come visit us as much as you want! There’s always something fun happening at the Magical and Mysterious World of LadyStar!”

“Did you see? Talitha-chan put a button on aaaaaall the comic pages that links to the first one so people can start reading from the beginning of the story if they want to. It’s the cute little green button that looks just like the cover with the lantern on it. It’s at the top of all the Varcarel Jade pages.”

“Sweet. LadyStar Varcarel Jade Page Ten is up. Mega-shout to the sisterhood!”

“Heheee.. Ja minna!”

“We’re really super happy today ’cause we gots a big announcement. Acey-san and Z-bot helped us a lot when those mean Halloween monsters attacked, and so we decided that Gamepowa should be part of our site all official and stuff!”

“And so I said that Acey and Z-bot should have their own character pages like us so Talitha made one for them! It’s Acey and Z-bot of the Starship Hana!“

“Welcome to the Goofy Bird show, Space girl! Good to have you guys orbiting the planet checking out all the coolest game tech, even if I can’t understand what Z-bot is talking about half the time.”

“Heh.”

“We’re honored to be a part of the best site on the web, game fans! Z-bot and I will do our best to make the Gamepowa category rock! A big salute from the crew of the Hana!”

“Check out the Gamepowa Store too. That’s where Acey and Z-bot put all of the great games they review. They’ve got over 300 games in the store now.”

“That’s affirmative.”

“Sugoi sugoi sugoi!”

“Our store has all the best games too!”

“Yay for Gamepowa! Go read all their neat articles, minna-san! All of Acey-san and Z-bot’s articles are in the Gamepowa Category that Talitha-chan set up. Have fun!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, what about the most important thing?”

“Oh yeah! Girls play video games too!”

“Booya! OUT!”

LadyStar is the story of a group of girls who each have a powerful weapon they wear disguised as a priceless jeweled treasure. With their magical weapons, Jessica Hoshi and her friends can transform into the Ajan Warriors, champion defenders of the enchanted realm of Aventar!

“Hi! I’m Jessica Hoshi! If you like stories about action and adventure and discovering magical treasures and fighting evil monsters, you’ll like our books a lot! Me and my friends have lots of fun adventures together! You can read LadyStar: The Palace in the Sky for free! The whole book! Right in your browser! So tell all your friends and come visit us as much as you want! There’s always something fun happening on our site!”

LadyStar is the story of a group of girls who each have a powerful weapon they wear disguised as a priceless jeweled treasure. With their magical weapons, Jessica Hoshi and her friends can transform into the Ajan Warriors, champion defenders of the enchanted realm of Aventar!

“Hi! I’m Jessica Hoshi! If you like stories about action and adventure and discovering magical treasures and fighting evil monsters, you’ll like our books a lot! Me and my friends have lots of fun adventures together! You can read LadyStar: The Dreamspeaker for free! The whole book! Right in your browser! So tell all your friends and come visit us as much as you want! There’s always something fun happening on our site!”

“Looky minna-san! We published page eight of our web comic which is called LadyStar The Varcarel Jade! You can read all the pages on our web comic site! Ja!”

“Ranko-chan?”

Ranko Yorozu sat in the corner of the band room, aimlessly tapping the wrong end of a drum stick on a practice pad. She stared blankly at the rest of the drum equipment that surrounded her. She and Jessica Hoshi were the only two people in the room.

Jessica walked around next to Ranko and sat down on the floor so she could see Ranko’s face.

“I want my treasure back,” Ranko said.

“Do you think we could have fought those Halloween monsters?” Jessica asked, implying that the surprise attack would have made their treasures useless.

“At least we could have done something,” Ranko said. “We left little bit all by herself like the whole time. She could have really gotten hurt, you know? We have to get those treasures back no matter what.”

“Cici-chan is a smart girl. She went to find help. That’s what I would have done too. I’m proud of her,” Jessica said, making a fist.

“I’m proud of her too,” Ranko said. “She’s pulled us out of tons of trouble now. Her and that little lantern and the ferocious guard cat,” Ranko grinned very slightly.

“She said her and Talitha fought together really good,” Jessica said. “I wish I could have been there.”

“We’ve got a lot of trouble coming, Goofy,” Ranko said. “We’ve got to get those treasures back. Some of the monsters we face might be too much for just little bit and the Professor.”

Jessica nodded. “We’ll find them. I’m sure of it.” Just then, Alanna and Shannon walked through the side door, with Cici, Talitha and Leila following. Jessica waved wildly.

“Konban wa minna-san!” she smiled. Shannon shook her head and smiled.

“Well, here we are once again, huh?” Shannon said. “We found Teko.” Shannon let Teko down off her hand. He hopped to the floor and began walking towards Jessica. About halfway there, something distracted him and he wandered off to look at the shiny base of a chair leg. Jessica giggled.

Cici stood behind Ranko and tugged Ranko’s shirt. Ranko swiveled around on the drumset stool she was sitting on and faced Cici.

“I found a new power that my lantern gots!” Cici announced. Ranko stifled a laugh as she saw the expression on Cici’s face. Then her eyes glistened just a little and she put her hand on Cici’s shoulder.

“I want you to know how proud we all are of you, little bit,” Ranko said. “You’re a real fighter. Never forget that.”

Cici closed her eyes, smiled and nodded, then opened her eyes again. “Me and Hikousen are ready for anything!” Cici said loudly. All of the girls laughed, even Leila. Just then, Irina and Tara ran through the front door, with a short, fierce looking woman following them. She was dressed in a parka, carrying a mobile phone and a set of car keys.

“Oh my, girls. What have they done to you? Are you hurt? Are you all okay?” the woman asked as she walked around to each of the girls in turn, putting her hands on either side of their faces and inspecting them for injuries. It took her less than 30 seconds to make sure every single one of the girls was okay. She was scarcely as tall as Jessica.

“Mom, we’re fine,” Ranko said as she fussed over the girls one at a time. “Really, we’re all okay.”

“Tara and Irina said you were all in trouble and to come quick. I got here as fast as I could.”

“You closed the diner?!” Ranko exclaimed. “What about dinner? What about all the regulars? That radio guy and the paint truck driver! They’ll end up over at that burger place and get food poisoning again!”

“Relax, I sent the deliveries early this afternoon. It’s Halloween! Everyone’s going to parties anyway. All I need is a big bowl of candies for the goblins.” the woman replied. “It’s all under control.”

“Ladies, if you haven’t met her yet, this is my mom, Darci Yorozu.”

“Hi Mrs. Yorozu! I’m Jessica Hoshi, but you can call me Jessie!”

“Well, I’ll be sure to call you Jessie, then!” Mrs. Yorozu replied with a wink. Jessica grinned. “Now, who’s up for a Halloween party with candy and cakes and caramel apples!”

“Me!” Cici shouted.

“Me!” Jessica shouted.

“Sounds like fun,” Shannon said. Alanna nodded.

“Let’s hit the diner, then,” Tara said. “Ranko’s mom makes the best pies you have ever eaten before. She has about ten recipes for real hot chocolate too.”

“Ooh, my mom can make great hot chocolate. Hey! She made candy this year! You wanna get some before we go to the diner?” Jessica asked.

“Are you kidding?” Mrs. Yorozu said. “Bring some along! Bring your mom too. We can compare recipes.”

“My mom has tons of recipes! Yay!” Jessica exclaimed.

All of the girls walked together out the front door of the band room. Jessica was so happy they were all together again.

“Happy Halloween, Jessie,” Shannon said.

“Happy Halloween, Shannon-sama.”

“It’s going to be a tough fight, Hikousen.”

“mwrowrzzzzzzz….”

“I can unlock it,” Alanna said, taking out her keys.

“Wow,” Cici said. “You’re just like a teacher, huh?”

Alanna smiled. “One of the perks of being in charge of the band is you get to unlock doors for them,” Alanna said as she turned the lock in the athletic building door. It was still dark inside, but they could see the hallway that led to the gymnastics training facility. Cici held up her lantern and the lobby area brightened slightly.

“Still glowing,” Talitha said, indicating Cici’s lantern. As Cici watched, it looked as if Talitha was talking in slow motion.

“What?” Cici asked as Talitha’s voice faded. Cici looked around frantically. Everyone was gone. Even Hikousen. She heard a voice whispering very close by.

“They don’t really like you,” the voice said. “Not really. They say you’re their friend, but you don’t deserve friends.”

“Who are you?” Cici shouted. “What did you do to Talitha and Alanna?!”

“They left you,” the voice said, as a shadowy shape began to emerge, moving towards Cici. She could see sharp horns on its shoulders and crooked hands. Cici held up her lantern defensively. “Didn’t they?” the voice asked. “You’re all alone, aren’t you?”

Cici hesitated.

“They left you because they don’t like you,” the voice whispered. “That’s why you have no friends.” The shape was close enough now for Cici to see what it was. Its head was the shape of a wolf’s, and it had very sharp high shoulders. Its entire essence was pitch black and a hazy indistinct grayish mist rose from its shoulders and head.

“You stay back!” Cici said. “I’ll zap you if you don’t stay away!”

“I am unarmed,” the voice said as the creature began to float slowly in a wide circle around Cici. “You know it wouldn’t be right to attack someone who hasn’t hurt you, don’t you?” it said. Cici hesitated again, watching the creature float past. Is it okay to fight? Cici thought.

“Maybe if you learned to get along with other people, you’d have friends,” the creature said. Cici’s expression slowly began to change as she listened. “Those older girls don’t really like you. They just tolerate you because they don’t want to hear you complain.” Cici sniffled.

“You’re not telling the truth. They do like me. They said so,” Cici challenged the creature.

“I’m not telling the truth? They are the ones who are lying. They all blame you for getting them trapped. They blame you because you hurt them,” the voice replied. “It’s your fault, isn’t it? Isn’t it your fault they got trapped? You could have saved them. You have an Ajan Treasure. Why did you fail?” Cici felt tears in her eyes. Maybe it is my fault.

“And now they’re going to leave you alone just like they’ve always wanted to,” the voice said as it slowly completed its circular path around where Cici was standing. “Look around. There’s nobody here. They’ve all left you. They’re going off to have their Halloween party. Even Acey. None of them like you. They don’t want you around. Nobody wants you around.”

“You be quiet!!” Cici shouted. “You don’t know! Those are my frien–” Cici’s voice broke. “They are!!” she screamed through her tears.

“No. You’ve never had friends. You know that. They are all trapped forever, and it’s your fault. Just admit it,” the voice whispered. “Admit it.” By now Cici was crying. She looked down at the lantern she was holding. Her hands were shaking and she felt an awful cold emptiness in her heart. There was nothing she feared more than being alone. And now she was alone with nothing but an evil voice for company. Even Hikousen was gone.

She could just see her own reflection in the lantern’s golden top. The Lantern. She felt its weight in her hands. It was the only source of light. It was then that she heard another voice. In her mind she heard faint words through the pain of being alone and abandoned. She could just hear the words through her fear of having no friends.

Are we the Ajan Warriors?

She stopped. The evil whispers faded away. Everything faded away. Her entire attention was on those words.

Are we the Ajan Warriors?

Something happened. What was a cold, fearful pain changed suddenly. A fire had started in Cici’s mind. Ajan Warriors. She thought of Ranko, and how many times she had encouraged Cici to do her best. She thought of Jessie and Shannon. She thought of the time they let her do an update all by herself. She remembered how they all cheered for her. She thought of Talitha, and how they had fought together. She thought of how proud Talitha was of how Cici had helped defeat the Halloween Monster.

Her mind burned. We are the Ajan Warriors, she thought. I’m an Ajan Warrior! She looked up suddenly, her eyes glaring with a warrior’s rage.

“They are my friends!” she screamed. “Because we’re all the Ajan Warriors!” Cici lifted the Chronicler’s Lantern, and it’s light glowed around her, pushing the darkness away. The creature’s eyes widened, and it snarled with white fangs.

“By the power of the Crystal Terrane! Ruby Lens of Fire!”

All eight lenses of the Chronicler’s Lantern shifted to a brillant, sparkling reddish color, and a fiery glow bathed the front of the athletic building in the seething light of a volcano’s blood. In that same instant, a cloud of yellowish-orange flames in the shape of a serpent’s head exploded from the lenses of the lantern and blasted through the dark shape as it turned to avoid the attack. A horrifying shriek echoed in all directions as the flaming remains of the shadowy fiend faded from sight.

Cici stood wide-eyed, holding her breath.

“Three cheers for the Ajan Wimps,” another voice said. Cici snapped to her right, ready to fight again. Floating in the air only a few feet away was the grinning face of a jack-o-lantern. Cici’s breathing was frantic and her heart was beating rapidly as she backed away, expecting another attack. Just then, Cici heard the doors of the athletic building slam open, and Ranko’s voice.

“There they are!”

Cici turned around with an expression of surprise and saw Ranko running towards her. Alanna was running faster, though. Just as Ranko reached the spot where Cici was standing, Alanna caught up and grabbed Ranko, who was clearly very upset.

“No, no, no..” Alanna said, pushing against Ranko and trying to hold her back. Shannon arrived to help, but Ranko was having none of it.

“You want to trap me in a cage?!” Ranko screamed. “Huh?!! Try trapping me again and we’ll see what’s left! Come on!” Ranko was jumping and pointing. Alanna and Shannon were doing everything they can to keep Ranko from rushing at the monster. Cici turned back to the grinning face.

“You’re the cause of all of this!” Cici shouted. “You leave us alone, ’cause now I know how to zap monsters!”

“We’ll meet again,” the jack-o-lantern said coldly. “You can’t defeat us. We’ll find you in Aventar. And next time we’ll have even more powerful sorcery.”

“Do I hear a bell?” Ranko snapped. “Because when I hear a bell, something’s about to get knocked out!” Ranko pointed over Alanna and Shannon’s arms. “You won’t have to look for us, rotface! Next time you find us you better bring something besides talk, and you mess with little bit again and I’ll kick you through those doors myself! You GOT THAT!?!” Ranko lunged again and again as Alanna and Shannon held her back.

“You Ajan Wimps make a brave noise,” the jack-o-lantern said calmly. “You have no idea what you face. When next we do battle, you will know the pain of defeat,” With that, the jack-o-lantern disappeared.

“Yeah!?” Ranko shouted. Then she clenched her mouth and teeth. There was nobody there. She slowly relaxed and Alanna and Shannon very slowly released her. Cici noticed Jessica, Talitha and Leila were standing a number of steps behind where Ranko had been held back. They still looked startled. Alanna turned to survey the situtation.

“Looks like they gave up,” Alanna said, trying to change the subject to help everyone recover from Ranko’s outburst. Ranko stormed past her.

“They better give up,” Ranko said angrily. “Because I’m just getting started.” Ranko walked through the side door to the Fine Arts building and slammed it behind her.

The other girls remained standing on the cement path outside the athletic building. Nobody spoke.

“And you haven’t seen either of them since yesterday?”

“No, Alanna-sama. We haven’t seen anyone. Leila-sama, Talitha-chan and now Shannon-sama are all missing and nobody has heard from them at all.”

“Here comes Yorozu, maybe she’s heard something.”

“We got trouble, boss. I checked the band room, and Goofy called everyone last night. Now it’s all three of them, and we haven’t seen Little Bit yet today.”

“We have to find her. She’s the only one left with an Ajan Treasure. We have to check her school first. Come on.”

“Ranko-chan, what do you think is going on?”

“I think it’s that Sorcerer Dude, and our biggest problem is the Professor had one of our only two treasures, so we’ve got to stay frosty and be ready for anything. I hope we can find Little Bit. Let’s go.”

“Ranko-chan, have you seen Talitha-chan today? She always meets me for lunch because we always get ice cream together at the little lunch place by the cafeteria but she wasn’t there today.”

“I didn’t see her at band practice today. Is she sick?”

“I talked to her last night on the phone and she was fine. She never misses school, Ranko-chan.”

“That is kind of weird. Let’s go see if Miss Shannon has seen her.”

“Okay.”

“Acey gots an update!”

“We should get her a little hat that says ‘Acey gots an update’”

“Heheeee… ooh! It’s a dancing game! I love dancing games!”

“Let’s get over to the Powa!”

“Shannon-sama! Looky! We gots another question from my Jessie’s Letters page!”

“It’s hard work to keep up with all the e-mail.”

“It sure is! This one’s about your book Call of the Huntress. It’s from ‘Sirea’ and they said ‘are we gonna put the whole story of Call of the Huntress online cause they really wanna know what happens next!’”

“We sure are! Call of the Huntress is the third book in the Ajan Warriors Series and it’s the sequel to Palace in the Sky, so we sorta have to continue the story, right?”

“Yeah, ’cause I wanna meet your big magical kitty-kat, cause I’ve never seen a midnight cougar with blue eyes before!”

“Well, I just might be able to arrange that after I get my treasure back and learn my powers as an Ajan Warrior.”

“Arigato Shannon-sama! If you gots a question or a comment or just wanna say “Hi Jessie and Shannon-sama!’ you can send an e-mail to meeeeeeee on my super-neat super-sugoi best on the whoooooole site Jessie’s Letters page. Ja ne minna-san!”

“We got another questionnnnnnnnn!”

“Who is it for this time?”

“It’s for Alanna-sama.”

“Hey Hoshi, what’s up?”

“We got a question on my super-neat Jessie’s Letters page! It’s from ‘Letter writer person’ and they said Alanna-sama, it says in the story time and again, and even in your profile that you’re very confident. How did you become so confident?’”

“Heh. It helps when you’ve got that mace and whistle and you’re in charge of the whole band.”

“Well, I wasn’t always in charge. I had to try out for Second Drum Major. I got a lot of encouragement from my friends in band though. When I was a freshman, I was the only girl in the bass line, but the rest of the guys in my section were always rooting for me. . .”

“What’s the matter Alanna-sama?”

“She gets kind of emotional about the Drum Major tryouts. That was the year I was a freshman and I remember the day she did her parade routine.”

“My whole section showed up in full uniform with their instruments for my tryout. . . and they stood at attention along the route I did my parade routine on. It was the first and only time that the bass line has ever done that at a Drum Major tryout. It was the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for me in band. I was so proud to be a sousaphone player that day. The day I got the call that I had been promoted to Second Drum Major, all seventeen of the other sousaphone players called me to congratulate me.”

“The bass line is a unique group.”

“They gave me a lot of encouragement and helped me even when I made mistakes. They taught me how to build confidence in others and that’s how I learned to take things one step at a time and not to let temporary failures depress me. By teaching confidence, I learned to be confident myself.”

“They helped her learn how to march a brass sousaphone in parades. That takes confidence by itself.”

“Word. Those things are like silly huge.”

“My section taught me I could accomplish whatever I decided I wanted to accomplish. That’s something we want everyone in the Tree Shores Band to learn.”

“We all want to learn to be as confident as you, Alanna-sama! If you have a question or a comment you can e-mail meeeeee at my Jessie’s Letters page and maybe I can get one of my best friends to help me answer your question! Ja!”

“The Prologue for the Varcarel Jade story was published, and so now we got two pages on the web comic site!”

“Okay, so like how do you get from one page to the next?”

“There are ‘Previous Page’ and ‘Next Page’ links at the bottom of each page.”

“Sweet! Bonus update action, folks! Have fun!”

“Ja!”

“This is our new web comic! It’s called LadyStar: The Varcarel Jade, and it’s a story about this really strange artifact we found one day after this super tough battle against some haunts at the Sports and Crafts Fair. It’s gonna be just like our Ajan Warriors Series Books, except it’s a seperate story, so it’s different than the books sorta, cause in the Varcarel Jade we all have our treasures and powers and stuff.”

“The Varcarel Jade will be updated every Tuesday and then again as part of our Ten Update Fridays. We might do some bonus updates too. We’ll announce everything here, and we’ve got a category set up for the web comic too.”

“So tell all your pals we’ve got a new web comic and invite them to join the adventure!”

“Yeah! It’s gonna be lots of fun! Ja!”

“What do you think? Should we?”

“I just want to know one thing.”

“What, Ranko-chan?”

“Are we the Ajan Warriors or not?”

“Sure.”

“No, are WE the AJAN Warriors?”

“Yeah!”

“ARE WE the AJAN WARRIORS?”

“Yeah!”

“ARE WE THE AJAN WARRIORS!?”

(nods)

“Then launch that webcomic! Early sneak preview and all!”

“Yay!”

“Have fun everyone. We’ll announce the update schedule tomorrow: www.ladystar.net/varcareljade“