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Super Sailor Puck

The game was over.

The knees to his shoulders knocked Puck off his feet. He hit the ground hard, Faustite landing on top of him. He gasped for air, the wind knocked out of him and the General's hand burning as his throat. Still, he managed one more smart remark.

"All right, we'll call it a draw," he choked.

Then Faustite's hand went for his chest… and his starseed.

Puck had had someone attempt to take his starseed before, years ago. The pain of that experience was nothing compared to the agony he felt this time, with the fiery General's fingers burning into his chest, aiming for his very soul. He tried to scream but the sound came out as a moaning gurgle. Reaching up, he grabbed the wrist of the hand at his throat and the hand trying to rob him of his starseed, but to no avail. He was well and truly ******** this time.

General Jet

Jet could feel the aura of the Princess bloom, and paused to look in the direction of where the others, and Aquamarine, had gone. He knew Aquamarine was smart enough to keep his distance, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be concerned.

“No, we stick to the operation,” Jet said to Cymophane, and then turned to watch him shove an unconscious Senshi into the building. He let out an exasperated breath, but figured Cymophane was distracted by the Princess’s aura. “You could just take their starseed,” he said, feeling a little weird about taking the starseed of a Senshi that was already knocked out, but they were supposed to be lessening their numbers. Jet knelt down to sink his hand into the Senshi’s chest and pulled out his prize.

Somewhere in the building he could feel the auras of others. Another General he assumed was Faustite.

What’s the situation? he asked into the earring, assuming Aquamarine had a visual on Ganymede and everyone else. He was tempted to call up Arles for help, but the youma would probably complain about the sunlight.



Corrupted Taenite

Taenite paused in what he was doing as well when the aura of the Princess washed over him. He made a face, uncomfortable with the sickening brightness. He let out a low whistle, impressed by the power emanating from the Princess. It was about what he’d expect from Axinite or one of the other General Sovereigns.

“I don’t think we’d be much help,” he admitted in response to Cymophane, although he supposed he should be listening to the General who was there with them. Still, he would be happy once this operation was over and he could tell Axinite about all the hard work they did and maybe get a promotion out of it.

What? He was participating.

Corrupt Eternal Cybele

Crying?

"I'm not-" began Cybele, but she lifted her hand to her face to feel heat in her cheeks and wetness on her fingertips.

The expression on the other senshi's face had fallen from anger into something else. Now she was asking about what was left of Cybele. That wasn't what she was supposed to say. That made the odd light, buzzing sensation in her head grow stronger, and it began to trickle down to her chest, as well.

She tried again. "I don't-" she murmured, even as Ganymede was there, insisting that she could be saved. The heat rose farther, and the tears with it, until Cybele's vision was blurry from it.

What was wrong with her? She'd been efficient before. She hadn't felt like this before.

She needed something different. Anger. Adrenaline.

People were beginning to attack. A youma was dusted. Cybele stepped forwards.

"No," she said, voice stronger this time, her words snipped. "I'm a cretin, remember? I'm a corpse walking."

Her jaw clenched tightly, even as the tears kept coming, and she threw another punch. It was still light, but this one was more focused, aimed at Megrez's chest.

It was a taunt.

"Hit me already," she growled.

General Aquamarine

Perched on a rooftop, Aquamarine observed the scene below.

Not quite hell in a handbasket, he thought to Jet, but getting there.

He could join in, give his allies a hand against the Princess, but he valued his life more than he valued his allies. The Corrupt Senshi meant nothing to him. Benitoite meant nothing to him. The other General meant nothing to him. They were all fodder in a war with no end, easily replaced should they fall here.

The appearance of another Corrupt Senshi drew a frown onto Aquamarine’s face. That b***h with the blinding light. Aquamarine squashed down the memories of being stuck in a dank cellar with him.

He winced and ducked instinctively when the Princess threw her tiara, but it stayed on course and struck a youma.

Aquamarine swore under his breath.

We’re losing youma left and right. Ben’s bowing to the Princess. I’m kidding, cool your jets. Aquamarine paused to snicker at his own poor joke. He got hit with her magic. Took a hot minute for him to recover. Probably not worth it to engage, in my opinion, but when has my opinion ever counted for much?

Shivering in the warm breeze, Aquamarine sneered at the figure of the Princess and let the image pass to Jet. Disgusting aura.

---

Corrupt Sailor Cymophane

Cymophane huffed at Jet, but offered him a beaming smile. “I was just leaving him for you, General. Thought you might like the honors.”

He was a little distracted. The Princess’s aura was difficult to ignore. To make up for his lapse, Cymophane took down the next hapless page to wander into his path and yanked another starseed. He came away from the effort with a scratch on his jaw and a bruised cheekbone, but he’d been in worse scrapes.

As the body went still, Cymophane turned his smile onto Taenite. “Maybe not, but at least we could say we’ve seen her and came out of it alive.”

Assuming she didn’t kill them all.

Did Princesses do that? Or were they above such things? Her aura did feel almost sickeningly sweet. Pure, like she was completely immune to the darkness.

Happy as Cymophane liked to appear, he didn’t trust people like that. They were usually liars.

Eternal Corrupted Kamacite

He felt bad for the squid youma. It was obviously doing its best, trying to help Faustite navigate things. It wasn’t as though Faustite could do much without at least singing things that he touched, so Kamacite was going to guess that this youma did a lot of the grunt work for him. Kamacite also felt bad that the youma seemed a bit dazed from his magic attack.

“Here,” he tried to offer as Squiddy blew bubbles in response to Chambersite’s message, holding his hand out in an attempt to take the communication device from him as Kamacite continued to try and catch his breath. He had energy left, plus a couple starseeds for an emergency, but he wasn’t looking forward to eating them.

Instead of listening to him, as was usual with most youma, although Kamacite didn’t think poorly of its intentions, Squiddy decided it wanted to attack the White Moon Princess, Eternal, and Page. There wasn’t enough time to try and stop the youma, and in the end Kamacite was left staring in horror as the Princess’s tiara ended what was left of it.

Youma regenerated in the Rift after they were dusted by the White Moon, right? That was his understanding. But something about this felt different. There was nothing resonating from where Squiddy had been, as though it no longer existed.

He could see where things were starting to fall apart, and they were no match for the Princess if they weren’t careful. They would have to have a well coordinated attack to immobilize her, but with the Generals being focused on separate things, Cybele being potentially emotionally compromised, and he had no idea where Faustite was in the mess of auras, he doubted they could plan anything on such short notice.

His hand was shaking as he reached down to scoop up the dropped communicator to store in his subspace pocket, and retrieved his own.

“This is Kamacite. We’ve obtained the information we needed from this operation. Captains and Negaverse Senshi that can teleport, please assist those who can not to return to Negaspace for any necessary medical assistance. Generals, please remain until all others are evacuated then return to Negaspace. Thank you for your continued efforts.”

Somehow his voice managed to remain steady through his announcement. If they could manage to get back to Negaspace without any casualties on their side, and the amount of energy and starseeds they’d obtained, then Kamacite was certain it would be considered a success. That, and he would very much like to retreat before the Princess could use any more of her powers.

After a moment, he held his communicator up to his mouth again, this time contacting his friend. “Cymophane, I don’t know where Faustite is, and I have his communication pen. Have you seen him? I’ll be over there soon,” he said quickly, trying not to sound as winded or panicked as he felt. He needed to keep an eye on the Princess while everyone else evacuated.

Starseeds - 2

Captain Chambersite

Incomprehensible gurgling was not what Chambersite wanted to hear out of the communicator. It was probably that stupid squid Youma that the General had. Why he thought the Youma would be a good idea to hold into the Communicator he couldn't guess. He could only wait around while Faustite and what appeared to be a less-powerful Order Senshi battled it upstairs. He was pretty sure it was Puck. He could recognize that signature, even with the stupid Princess Senshi's aura being almost overwhelming.

Then he heard something that he thought would happen but had really wished it wouldn't. They were retreating now, which meant that it was over. He cursed to himself. "What a waste." He said, before checking to make sure he had enough energy to teleport away. He then turned on the communicator. "If there are any Basic corrupts or Lieutenants that need a ride out of here, I can help." Faustite was no longer giving the orders, but he still needed to follow the Eternal's orders at this point, which meant checking to make sure that if anyone needed a teleport, they would get one.





Eternal Takamizawa

He barely had time to react before the Squire had put the civilian down and had run toward a General. He was surprised she would do that, though was less so when he saw the starseed in the other's hand and felt anger rise up in him. Unfortunately there wasn't anything he could do to help with that, that he knew of, but he could help Pendour.

He raced after her, getting ready to attack the General if he dared to hurt her! He took notice of the Corrupt as well, but his main worry was Pendour. He would deal with the Corrupt if he had to.

[Corrupt Sailor Mirzam]


Mirzam gaped, at Pavo's vertical leap. Of all the ways she'd thought to see someone escape, this was brand-new, and her instinct, instantly, was to leap up after her and fling herself to tackle the girl to the ground. As she leapt, though, she made the gesture for her magic.

"Bedlam Dance!"

This was it. The operation was over, it sounded like, based on the chatter on her communicator, but this could be their chance to show exactly how much they were worth. Goodness knew that sweet, hesitant, cautious Stanti would have few chances to demonstrate what he was capable of.

So this would have to be it. Whatever successes they could pry from this, before they found someone to help them retreat.

"Cleeia! Your magic!" Mirzam called, and she held her breath. Hopefully her brother understood exactly what she was going for.

[Corrupt Sailor Cleeia]

Cleeia hardly needed Mirzam's call. From the moment the retreat was called, he felt something grow in his spine--an iron that wasn't usually there, a determination that rarely showed itself for the awkward, usually unassuming Corrupt. It might not paralyze her directly, but it sure would make the poor girl deeply confused, and Cleeia hoped that was enough to get them the edge.

They could bring her in. They could make her into one of them.

They could win.

"Dark Inspiration!" Cleeia called, drawing the strange sigil of his magic in the air before him and gesturing at Pavo.

Paradise, Page of Cosmos

Even though Cybele was supposed to be their “enemy”, all Paradise wanted to do was to offer her some comfort. She was obviously confused and lost and just needed a chance to make things right, but in this situation when there were so many others who were on the other side, even as new as she was Paradise knew it would be dangerous for Cybele to consider trying to obtain help from them.

But Paradise had another problem to deal with. A young man who looked like he needed to sleep for a good long while.

“Oh, dear, when was the last time you slept? Have you been drinking enough water? When was the last time you talked to your mother? I’m sure she would be worried sick about you. Maybe you should take a break from all of this fighting and invite your mother to lunch, and then go to bed early.”

At least that’s what she would suggest to her own children. Even with her makeshift weapon in hand, she only planned on using it to defend herself against the wild… youma…? Was that was Peter called them? She didn’t look forward to having to fight anyone, but she definitely didn’t want to be a distraction to Ganymede.

“Do you know what her favorite flowers are? I bet it would make her day if you brought her a gift, too.”