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 Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2011 4:51 pm
The moon overhead hung heavy and low in the sky, taunting the bright eyes of the ascendant general as she stared up into it's glow. Her face, for the most part, seemed passive - unfeeling almost. Just at the edges of her lips, however, there was a frown. Her eyes crinkled and narrowed just a fraction.
For the bastardized senshi it was a great show of displeasure, but not just at the moon kingdom itself.
This was one of the only nights Alkaid had been out on her own, and not because of her own fears. Hematite, Fluorite, and some of her other team members had begun to treat her like a china doll. To a degree, she understood, but at the same time.. she had already begun to understand that as weak as she was physically, she had more power than anyone guessed. It was impossible to cage, to ignore. It crackled around her like energy, pouring out into the night and marking her as clearly as Tanzanite's great aura did.
How could someone so powerful be weak?
Her eyes narrowed more visibly on the moon overhead and she turned with a great emphatic whirl of her cape. Her eyes fell from the sky and drifted down to the unconscious civilian she had been toying with minutes before. An unfortunate sleeze that had hit on Kaia a little too tastelessly, someone Alkaid had no qualms about blotting from existence.
She stooped down next to him so that her shimmering cape pooled at her feet and tilted her head slightly to the side as she let her hand snake out across his chest. She paused for a moment and then drove it through. Her brows lifted slightly in surprise as she felt her fingers brush the cavity of a starseed for the first time, then the pulsing energy of the seed itself. They curled around it and pulled, dragging it out by instinct, until the shining life force burned in the palm of her hand.
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Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2011 8:53 pm
There was a power out there..
From the moment she'd first powered up for the night Polaris had felt it. The drawing dark energy that pulsed off in the distance. Loud and unsettling, undenibly strong.
No time had been wasted trying to look for anything else, any other energies detected were quickly ignored. It was easy enough to tell that they had nothing on this, the pulsating darkness that grew thicker the closer Polaris drew.
Auras were sometimes hard to find, but this one was like a beacon in the night and the closer she got the more the senshi of magnetism's stomach churned and wearily turned flips on itself. Perhaps her body was warning her what her head could not. The power was so dark.. familiar and yet so incredibly foreign and unlike anything she'd ever felt before. She could claim it was duty she was acting upon, but it would be a lie to say curiousity hadn't hastened her steps. But even in her wildest dreams she could not have guessed what she was going to stumble upon this evening.
When Polaris had finally found the source of the feeling, the other girl's back had been to her, obscuring exactly what she'd found, and Alkaid's hand was dipped into the chest of a body sprawled across the street.
She had no time for flashy introductions, her body simply sliding into a pose that was almost comicly 'karate master' in vibe. Her voice was barked, asserting herself and offering a quick warning. "Give it back"
Her weight shifted to her back leg softly, wearily. Now that she was this close she knew she didn't have the upper hand necessarily. But that didn't mean she'd just 'tuck her tail' and run.
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Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2011 10:47 am
Even in her distraction, she'd felt the aura as soon as it turned in her direction. It was something she kept her attention on, even just subconsciously, because she knew that she could draw every sensh in this part of the city if she weren't careful. A chaotic aura like her own was not really a blessing in any form.
As the aura drew close and the sound of footsteps echoed off the buildings around them, Alkaid's posture went rigid. Her head tilted ever so slightly to the side and she waited, listening politely to the demands of the eternal. In one fluid movement, she pushed herself to her feet, allowing the pool of dreads and cloth to straighten out and hang properly down her back. Then she turned, slowly, and settled a thin smile and bright eyes on the senshi of magnetism.
"I'm afraid that I need this more than he does," her hand curled tighter around the pulsing energy and then drew it swiftly to her mouth, swallowing it in one swift motion. It burned as it went down, shining brightly beneath the cracks in her skin as it passed from her mouth down her throat. Then, the light faltered and disappeared entirely.
Her eyes fell back to Polaris and that thin smile spread, though the feeling never reached her bright eyes. "I suppose you can try to avenge him though, if you'd like."
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Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2011 10:24 pm
Her teeth gnashed together in the second it took for the dark senshi to lift the starseed to her lips, disappearing into oblivion. It was always so quick, she was always too slow. Her fists clenched, body stilled knowing that there was no way she would have made it anyway. Another soul lost, another person. Forever.
Why in the world did she always announce herself? Why didn't she just strike the other girl down silently the moment she spotted her? How many times had she ever really been able to stop what she had just seen? Maybe twice in a dozen instances? It was a sombering thought, but one that quickly faded away as her eyes took in the strangeness in front of her.
As her eyes followed to the lips.. and then to the throat, the senshi of magnetism noticed something different about this corrupted senshi. Something... almost sinister?
The cracks radiating from her dark chest hole were unnerving.. strange. All of her skin actually. It was pale.. with soft lines and cracks spiderwebbing.. like a porcelin doll that had fallen from a high shelf. A doll who moved, the smile and eyes watching her did not help the shivers that ran down her back.
Polaris had never seen a corrupted eat a starseed, nor was she privy to the information that regular ones weren't able to. That the senshi of guidance had been through something different then the most. Her throat hitched however at the girl's insistance that she needed the starseed, calling back in return. "I don't know what they did to you... why you think you need it. But taking someone else's life just for yours.. to extend it." Because she assumed that's what the other girl had meant. "It's not right."
Preaching to the corrupt was most often a waste of breath, but Polaris was stubborn.. perhaps even indignant to the forces of chaos. And self righteous, never not self righteous. "I was too late for him, and I'm sorry for that. I could avenge him.. but what will it help? I think it's more important to protect the living."
A breath.. a moment's choice, and slowly her boots began forward in slow steps, her messy braids swaying softly in the motion. "So then. Will I be protecting you and helping you find a way back to the light? Or are you so far gone that my only choice is to protect those that you'd intend to hurt in the future by taking you out now?" She didn't really know how to do the former.. but after learning of Lina... of purification.. she had to at least offer. She wasn't holding her breath for a favorable answer though in all truthfulness.
Her eyes left the other girl's for mere seconds, taking inventory of their surroundings. Or more importantly.. the metal in the area.
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Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2011 3:22 pm
For what it was worth, Alkaid let the Eternal talk. She listened with patience as Polaris spouted meaningless words, repeating dribble that the Ascendant General had heard since her first steps into the Negaverse. Still, her eyes remained focused on the scantily clad senshi and she even smiled as the speech came to an end.
"Oh, to walk in the light again," her eyes drifted to the moon looming overhead, staring at the crescent with something that could have almost been wistful. Then that wistful smile changed and became darker, tinted with a darkness that only the corrupt senshi would ever understand. When her eyes dropped again she spread her hands - a seemingly innocent gesture, as if she wanted Polaris to take a good look at her.
"There is no return to the light when you have become the embodiment of darkness, senshi." She took a few steps to the side, around the body that was already turning blue at the edges. "But the light is not always what it seems and the darkness is not always what mortals should fear most." As she stopped on the other side of the body, her spread hands centered and turned palm up. It could have been interpreted as an attempt to beseech the senshi.
"Follow me into the darkness and let us put this rivalry aside."
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Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 9:03 am
It was truly unsettling to look at her.. the strange cracks almost as off putting as the dark energy that just rolled off of her, as if trying to swallow Polaris in the same way her words offered to. Give in to darkness, the darkness was right? Polaris had heard it as many times as Alkaid had heard her own spheal. And so it seemed that they were at an impass.. with two sides too stubborn to possibly look at the other. Two sides so certain they were in the right.
Unfortunately for Polaris, she was oblivious to what the dark senshi was doing, taking her subtle motions in the most innocent of ways. In fact she did seem to take in all the details when the arms were held out, eyes focusing on the hole in her chest before finally her eyes shyed away.
"I'm sorry you feel that way."
"I mean look at yourself.." Really she'd never seen anything like it before. "It's like your body is breaking apart in pain and despair because of your choice. Your senshi blood rebelling against the darkness. And still that's what you want?"
A sigh escaped her, heavy and with the hints of frusteration, unable to even understand the choice. Or consider the other senshi's offer.
"I guess one of us is leaving tonight, and the other is not." It was a bold statement, one that should have been backed up with more of a defensive position then the one she'd taken. But really.. how was she to know what the other girl was packing. Naive.. optimistic.
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 3:09 pm
To Alkaid, it seemed like Polaris was walking right into the trap she was laying for her. If she had been less cautious, she would have smiled at her triumph. Yet Alkaid knew that there was no triumph to be had until the Senshi was face down on the pavement and no sense in an early celebration.
It was a beautiful image, though.
"You will never know power without sacrifice, you can never understand loyalty without giving up everything for the war." The thin lipped, lifeless smile on her lips pursed tighter as she took one single step forward, until her toes brushed the sleeve of the dying civilian. "What I want doesn't matter."
At Polaris' bold statement, whatever words Alkaid had left died on her lips. Her eyes narrowed a fraction, the only sign that she had accepted the gauntlet.
"Ascendant's Barrage!" Two words, spoken quickly and a power summoned even faster. The hole in her chest, where the glimmers of her starseed shined, began to glow in a bright orange. It channeled down through the cracks in her arms until a bright orb flashed to life, hovering inches above the palms she had previously been holding out to Polaris.
Then that lifeless, thin smile curled into a smirk - all malevolence and danger - and her narrowed eyes trained all their focus on the Senshi before her. Without a warning, the orb began to separate and missiles of light began to peal away. Away and towards Polaris, with no sign of slowing or stopping. The time she had to act was ticking away.
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Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2012 9:16 pm
Sacrifice... loyalty... She couldn't help but feel the tug at her heart as the words sounded. They were ones that Polaris definately understood. To put their duty ahead of their own lives... To give up their own wants and desires for in exchange for what everyone else needed. To think that from both sides they could be so similiar.. that the same motivations in her could have been so warped and confused in the other girl's head.
If she'd had time to think about it she might have questioned what the other girl had given up and would give up. But in the end there was no time. Her eyes narrowed as suddenly a soft orange began to flicker from within the cracks of her skin.
Polaris herself had made the declaration.. so why did she linger until the last moment.. when it became very evident that she was most certainly being attacked? One shot might have been dodgeable, but it was a barrage she found herself assaulted with.
One, two shots, slipped by her, the energy hissing as it barely missed it's target. The senshi of magnetism had barely had enough time to locate something big enough and call her attack when one of the missles struck her. A scream of surprise and pain escaped her, overtaking the sound as metal scrapped the ground and a bench hurled itself at Alkaid.
Another hit as she tried to crawl behind something, anything for protection and cover, pain screaming through her body. Her words before might have been her own death warrent if she wasn't careful.. and at the moment.. Polaris was MORE than okay with letting Alkaid get away if she got to leave too.
With a hiss she pushed herself to her feet as she crouched, trying to figure out if the missiles had subsided.
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Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2012 3:55 pm
The missiles kept going: one, two, three..
Unfortunately, as direct as the missiles could be, they required almost all of Alkaid's attention. On some level she heard the scraping sound of metal that should have alarmed her, and yet she did nothing. It wasn't until the metal bench collided with her that she was well and truly aware of it.
It knocked her clean off of her feet and sent her sprawling onto the pavement, her attack vanished and forgotten. She was a heap of sheer, glittering fabric and hair from which a smokey substance was rising. As she began to push herself to her feet slowly, it became obvious that the substance.. was from within her. Cracks across her torso and legs had gaped open, letting the dark energy within begin to pour out. Where the gaping holes were present they also glowed with a fierce, orange light that branched out from her starseed and towards the unique injuries. Where it glowed it was healing. The gaping cracks were slowly closing, stitching themselves back together.
If Alkaid had not just taken a starseed, she could have been finished. As it was, she was weakened. She could call her power once more, perhaps, unless that senshi threw another bench in her face. She was beginning to realize that Polaris was a senshi whose power could definitely be the end of her - but her tortured heart had so little room left for fear. There was only confidence, duty and the need to prove that Metallia's power had not been wasted upon her.
"Good shot," she complimented the senshi as she crawled out of her hiding spot, though Alkaid was still healing, "but it's not hard to hit a target with a weapon that big, hm?"
So she would try to taunt a little..
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Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2012 1:20 pm
The pain was searing, throbbing, sending quick flares of discomfort up her spine even long after the missiles had landed. What exactly the missiles were made of Polaris was not certain, but whatever it was it hurt, and it was becoming fairly obvious that the Eternal had once again bit off more then she could chew in challenging the strange cracked senshi.
There were just too many unknowns.. What exactly was she? What was she capable of? The worries about the later question only grew as Polaris saw a strange orangeish glow begin to emit from her cracks. Was she attacking again? The senshi of magnetism didn't know if she could handle getting hit again, especially if she was packing something stronger then the first time.
She was turning to leave and run when the taunt sounded.
A hiss escaped her, teeth grinding for a moment with irritation and pride. And for a moment she thought about staying, thought about focusing on the smallest thing she could find and driving it right into that gaping hole in her chest. But in the end logic won out. Using anymore energy on an attack would only exhaust her more. And if she didn't make it back because she let her stupid pride get in the way.. well she wouldn't be the only one suffering.
And so Polaris put her energy instead into retreating, left arms holding and pressing against the pain in her torso, boots pounding the pavement as quickly as she could manage to try and outrun any attack that might get thrown at her back. She wouldn't have long to get home before she powered down, her power already fading fast.
She couldn't stay entirely silent through, tossing back a few words of her own. "No easier then getting three shots at a target instead of one. Don't worry though, next time I'll lodge a dime in your forehead."
She'd be ready next time, and more prepared. But tonight was not that night.
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Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2012 5:50 pm
The sound of Polaris' boots beating a retreat was all Alkaid needed to hear to begin relaxing. Her skin felt like it was on fire, searing where it was mending itself, but she simply stood there listening to the sound of victory.
Not that it was much of a victory at all.
As the words echoed back to her, carried by the still night air, Alkaid could not help the tiniest of smirks. She did not call after her, she did not respond, she simply turned her back on the scene of their battle and the poor, forgotten civilian and disappeared mid-step in a poof of dark energy.
The eternal would never know that she'd done enough damage to send Alkaid home to recuperate, but the Ascendant would remember.
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