The prologue of Hailstorm is a modified portion of Dark Phoenix's prologue to "Who's Your Daddy?", found on Tannim's page (http://tannim.anifics.com/Daddy/Daddy.html)

Return From the Past - CT p.1
 

After nearly two months of waking up to her mother's early morning regimen, a nice, peaceful morning seemed almost breathtaking in its simplicity. The idea of not having to get up to those murderous exercises in training felt so nice, Ami very nearly didn't get out of bed. What was one day of school, after all, when she was ahead of her class in every subject?

The idea of missing school didn't sit very well, though, and in the end, Ami forced herself to get out of bed and prepare for her day. She could probably allow herself some leeway and just be late to class - the teacher would excuse it as her first time being late, so there was no worry about detention or some other penalty. Savoring the current moment would be worth the small consequences caused for indulging herself.

On her way out the door, a full five minutes later than she usually left, Ami was caught by surprise by two strangers who were at her doorstep. The shorter of the two women wore crisp dark gray dress pants and a blue dress shirt, while the other was decked out in a pair of casual brown pants and a dark green shirt, which by the look of it was designed to allow the wearer great flexibility in movement while remaining formal enough in appearance to be wearable to most casual functions. The colors were a strange choice, though.

They seemed as surprised to see her as she felt at seeing them. The taller woman, whose brown hair was much darker than her companion's, merely glanced at her before turning away and mumbling too low for her to make out the words.

"Hahahaha, excuse my companion, please, Mizuno-san," spoke the other woman. "Um, we were wondering if Mizuno-sensei or Saotome-sensei was in right now. We only need a few moments of their time... um..."

"No, I'm sorry, my mother isn't in, and Saotome-sensei doesn't live here. Um, I have to go, I'm going to be late for school." The two women didn't budge, and Ami caught a glance of their badges to see what they said. 'Mishima Heavy Industries'. Not even their names, just the company logo.

The more polite of the two seemed to perk up to her response, but the other woman interrupted her. "Kyoko, he isn't here. We have to go find Kensuke before Tendo-san gets upset - you don't want him to get upset, do you?"

Kyoko turned away from her, and nodded to her companion. "You're right, we should go."

The two women left her at the doorstep, wondering who they were.

Ami walked alone down the two or three blocks left between her and her mother's apartment. The day had so far been fairly strange. On the one day Ami had ever been late to school, Usagi found the strength, will, and determination to arrive at school, and early! Though her tardiness drew stares from her classmates upon her arrival, the teacher had done nothing more than warn her about her next tardy, as expected. The most peculiar part of the day had yet to come, and Ami fairly bubbled in anticipation of her trip to the future with the other Senshi and Chibi-Usa.

A figure stood near the upcoming intersection, in a lot - was that the same lot Hibiki-san had shown up at, harassing her father? As Ami approached, she made out the figure to be none other than Omiaki Yui.

"Mizuno-san! So there you are! I've been waiting a few hours now for you to show up. What's taken you so long?" shouted Omiaki-san from where she stood.

Ami gripped her books tighter to herself, and approached the lot to inspect what the other girl was doing. Yui stood between several buckets and bottles, and each bucket was of a different size, holding drastically different quantities of water.

"How do you like this setup, Mizuno-san?" Yui asked cheerfully.

"Omiaki-sempai," she began carefully. "What, um. What are all these buckets for?"

"Heh. You'll see, soon enough. I'm running a little experiment here, nothing too harmful or long-lasting. Sort of like a magic trick. You see this bucket, here?"

Yui pointed at a bucket on her right with a gloved hand. Actually, very little of Yui's skin was exposed, from the rugged boots and baggy camo pants she wore to the face mask, goggles, and encircling cap she wore about her head. The white lab coat she wore about her silk blue blouse dominated most of her form, and briefly Ami wondered how she was even able to recognize the girl in the first place.

Looking closely at the bucket pointed out by Yui, Ami could see nothing exemplary about the water it held.

"Is there something wrong with the water?" she asked carefully, more aware now that there might seriously be something wrong with Omiaki-sensei's mental stability.

"Oh, no, there's nothing _wrong_ about the water. It's just regular water, mixed with some of the stuff in this bottle. Nothing _permanent_, though."

"Oh," replied Ami, cordially. "So, um, what are you going to do with the water, then, Omiaki-sempai?"

Yui smiled at this question. "It's sort of like a magic trick. All you have to do is pick a bucket, and I'll show you what I mean. Hmm. Those books look expensive. You might want to put them somewhere safe and dry."

Uncertainty wavered within Ami's mind. Should she stay and find out what Omiaki-sempai was trying to do? Cautiously, she walked a few meters away and placed her books neatly on a concrete block next to the dividing fence of the lot. After walking back to where Yui stood, Ami carefully selected a nondescript-looking bucket on Yui's left. Yui smiled.

"An excellent choice, Mizuno-san. You seem like a girl who likes the ocean, and what better fate for you than becoming a turtle?" She held a bottle aloft, opened it, and stared her down. Her eyes captured by the other girl's menacing stare, Ami felt vulnerable, unable to move from whatever impending danger the bottle might bring.

The bottle might only look like it had water, but Ami knew better than to assume that was all it was. There were plenty of substances that, when combined, would look like water, or would sit in water without changing its appearance. Whatever lay within that bottle was, more likely than not, very hazardous to her health.

Yui glanced at the bottle in her hand, then spoke in a solemn tone. "This is my revenge. A petty revenge it may be, but after this, maybe you and I will be even. Maybe."

In a careful, precise motion of her arm, Yui swung the bottle around so that most of the contents of the water splashed her in her face and the blouse of her uniform. The shock of the cold water woke Ami from her entranced state, and for a few moments, Ami felt dizziness shoot through her, nearly enough to cause her to fall forward onto the buckets in front of her.

"Yui!" she shouted when her nerves and bearings were collected once more. "Ah, I'm all wet. Omiaki-sempai, did you have to throw the water in my face?" So preoccupied was she, that she did not immediately notice the echo of her words.

Actually, she wouldn't have noticed at all, if Yui hadn't been staring at her, then shooting a glance off to her left, alternating her gaze between herself and whatever else had caught her attention. Apprehension gripped Ami tightly, and she slowly turned to see what had caught Yui's attention.

There, standing before her, was a doppelganger. It was her very likeness, down to the uniform and the water trickling down her hair from recently having been splashed by a clear liquid substance. It shouldn't have been possible.

In what little snatched of sound that Ami caught, though she would not remember until later, Yui shouted quite clearly, "This was supposed to be Instant Turtle, not Instant Twin!"

Both Ami and her doppelganger turned quickly to the loud disturbance that was Omiaki Yui. The crazed girl decked out in lab gear glanced at them, then quickly grabbed a kettle, and Ami found herself splashed again by more water - this time the water was hot. She found herself disoriented by the new liquid, even worse than the dizzy spell that had held her before, and a strange sensation passed quickly through her body, up her nervous system, and triggered a moment of shock within her mind. Unable to retain her balance, Ami found herself crashing downward, down, down...

A loud pounding sounded on the door of Mizuno Atsuko. Wearily, she stood up from the table she'd been working at and walked to the door, unlocking and opening it wide. There before her stood a child, a bit taller than Ami and with brown hair, wearing a Juban girls' uniform. It was hard to tell, with the child still staring down at the floor, but to Atsuko it seemed the child was a boy. Maybe he was related to Tsubasa?

The boy looked up at her - yeah, definitely male - and Atsuko could tell he'd been crying. Maybe some bullies had been harassing him and dressed him up as a girl, or something? Did he know Ami, that he knew to come here?

"Mother..." the boy whispered, then jumped forward and grasped tightly to her. By the heart-wrenching sobs that came forth from the boy, something terrible had happened to him, and recently.

A sneaking suspicion crept into Atsuko's mind, and she carefully pulled the boy away from her. Tentatively, she questioned him. "Ami, Ami-chan, is that you?"

The boy nodded in response, and fear swept through Atsuko in droves. "Ami, come inside. Tell me what happened." She pulled him inside and closed the door behind them.

How on Earth could Ami have been splashed with Jusenkyo water?

Once inside, Atsuko quickly cleaned up the dinner table of its contents and settled Ami down before it. She left briefly into the kitchen, filling a kettle with water and placing it on the stove to heat up.

"Ami," Atsuko stated in a clear voice when she returned to the dining table. "Tell me what happened, from the beginning. How did you become a boy?"

Carefully, Ami related the tale of how, as a girl, she'd met with Omiaki-sempai in the nearby lot and how she'd been splashed with water that created doppelgangers, then fell into a bucket of water that changed her form into that of a boy's.

By now, the kettle had warmed sufficiently to be able to cause a Jusenkyo-induced change. Ami watched, puzzled, as she stood and retrieved the kettle and a cup, placing them on the table. Atsuko filled the cup halfway with the steaming water before sitting down.

Worrisome thoughts plagued Atsuko's mind when Ami completed the tale. It was obvious that the bottle that Yui had splashed in her daughter's face was Drowned Twin water, but equally obvious that it was Instant water, as Ami came home with no doppelganger. Unfortunately, it was also equally as obvious that when Ami had chosen a bucket of water, Yui used water from the bottle, instead. The reason for choosing the bottle over the bucket may have been the bottle was easier to use, but some impossible to quench suspicion darted through her mind that the water in the buckets were there because they were special, and that special quality most likely was their place of origin - the actual spring from Jusenkyo.

There was really only one way to test it out, though.

Testing the water in the cup, Atsuko found the water to be of a sufficient temperature. She turned to Ami, who had for the most part stopped crying, and was now looking at himself with a pained, but fascinated look in his eyes. He squirmed in his seat, clearly uncomfortable and unaccustomed with his new body. The boy would no doubt welcome his old body back. Too bad it might not be permanent. It seemed the Saotome lineage was destined for strange and peculiar lives.

"Ami," Atsuko said, getting the boy's attention. "This is hot water. Just splash yourself with this and it will reverse your curse. But-"

Ami halted in the motion of picking up the glass with his hand. Was there a price, or something?

Atsuko choked on what she wanted to say, then spoke again, her voice wavering. "But... If the water in that bucket is what I think it is... Ami, your curse will be triggered every time you are hit with cold water."

Ami stared at her for a few moments before voicing an opinion. "Mother... How do you know this?"

Atsuko looked away, then said, "Ami. I." She sighed, defeated. "We should make sure you are really cursed, first. I'll tell you after we find that out."

Ami nodded once, then grabbed the cup of now warm water and dumped the contents on his head. He gasped, and in moments, his form dissolved and reformed, and Mizuno Ami was herself once more.

Atsuko quickly rose before any more statements could be made, heading for the kitchen. The sound of the tap water running could be heard, and in moments, she returned to the table with another glass of water - this time, cold water. Ami backed away from it instinctively.

"Ami, I know you don't want to do this. I don't really want to know, either. But we've gotta find out - you have to know whether or not you'll change if you go swimming in the pool, or something. It's a pain, yeah, but it's better you know now than find out. later."

Atsuko placed the water on the table, and Ami slowly motioned to grab it, apprehension showing clearly in her eyes. She closed her eyes and upended the contents over her head.