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"I'm telling you, Little Dreads, one will be here."

The orange haired Captain glanced over at the young man, who was continuing to shoot daggers in her direction. Daggers that said yeah ******** right, you said the same thing ten minutes ago.

"Trust me. I told you, I've done this before. One will show up. This park practically spawns senshi."

Purple boots swung carelessly as she let her feet dangle down. They'd been sitting in the large tree directly in the center of the park for a good twenty minutes now, Hematite having grown restless about twenty minutes prior. She was growing restless herself, but thankfully, the Captain was more patient than her young cohort.

They had been bored. It was a pleasant Saturday evening but there had been nothing to do. She'd hit him up for senshi patrolling - there had been no questions asked. Some slight hesitation (why hunt for senshi when one could laze around in a dorm room?) but he'd followed, in the end. And now found himself ten feet in the air, sitting uncomfortably atop a thick tree branch with the woman who might as well have taken on the title of Stepmom.

Letting off a yawn, one gloved hand moved up to cover her mouth. Several times now, Nealite had wandered into this park and run into senshi. Castor. Alkaid. Virgo. Nerissa. The list went on, merely proving her point that every damn time she came here, a senshi showed up.

And she'd be damned to be proven wrong this time.

It had been almost pleasant lately, temperature-wise, and the merciful pattern continued through to today. Virgo could almost bear to look at her woefully exposed knees today, to say nothing of her toes. Couldn't they give them, like, winter uniforms? She wanted a pair of pants.

But then, at least she was used to it. Pisces wore thick stockings with her school uniform.

She was meandering down the path in that one park she almost always ended up in, clasping and unclasping the pretty stylized wheat detailing as her new Best Friend skipped along next to her. "No no," said Virgo, pausing, "you have to put a little more weight on your heel when you land or you're gonna twist something! Scy, be careful!" It wasn't that she found Sailor Scylla to be overly incautious. Actually, the senshi of the kraken was very, very cautious! It was a good trait to have, and probably went back to her awakening, which seemed like it had Not Gone Well. Virgo appreciated this trait, especially as it meant that Sailor Scylla stayed behind her when the Zodiac grabbed her arm.

One hand came up, pointing directly at the orange-haired Negaverse agent in front of them. "You," said Virgo, a little bit of irritation in her voice, "got me in a lot of trouble." The finger pointing to Nealite drifted to Hematite for a moment, and she narrowed her eyes, seemed like she was going to say something, and then she shut her mouth and dropped her arm. "Scy, these are Negaverse agents. They are the bad guys. The one on the left is Captain Nealite, but she's not a Captain like my Captain, and the other guy is..."

Confused, she looked at the dreadlocked Negaverse agent again, and then she pouted and said, "He's that guy. You know the guy, right?... You don't? Darn."

Somewhat lackadaisical--Nealite had never been a threat to her, except in Barren Pines when she'd had zombies, and then the one time when she'd almost gotten coerced into giving up her starseed--she turned back to the two agents and said, "Hey! What are you guys doing here, I'm teaching!" She didn't bother proposing they leave and come back next week; there was danger here, if only in the unknown (but known?) danger of the one with the bladed boomerang, and she wasn't going to moon about any more than she had.

Glancing up from the tips of her purple heels, orange eyes caught sight of the approaching duo and a grin spread wide across her face. She knew that one would show up eventu--oh.

Oh.

OH.

This was too good. Too ******** good.

"Virgo, darling! I don't know what in the world you're talking about!"

The second senshi wasn't recognizable. Which was fine, really. Two versus two, and if one senshi just happened to be the far-too-innocent-for-her-own-good Virgo, then the Negaverse clearly had the advantage on this one. They'd be bringing back a pair of senshi star seeds this evening, and she couldn't wait to see the expression on her husband's face when he was presented with them - one being a Zodiac's, even.

Sliding off of the branch, heels made a soft thud against the grass, and hands moved down to straighten her dress. Once satisfied, one hand moved out and Precious materialized, the older woman then giving her weapon a few practice swings for show.

It was obvious from Virgo's tone that she'd finally come to some sort of sense and realized the threat that stood before her. Which was a pity, honestly; she'd been horribly fun to toy with in the past.

One finger flicked itself out, pointing directly at the long haired senshi accompanying the Senshi of Innocence.

"Who's your friend, dear? Hematite and I would love to help give her some lessons."

"Captain Aries was mad at me for listening to you," said Virgo resentfully, "she told me to never talk to you again." She startled visibly at the appearance of the mirror; she had seen it before, in Barren Pines, but she hadn't exactly been expecting the Negaverse officer to summon it out of nowhere. Well, it wasn't new news to her; hadn't the redheaded officer (Obsidian, she remembered) brought that terribly splintery sword out of nowhere?

She balled up her fists, slid one foot back for better balance. Were they going to fight? Virgo had hoped to have a little more time to teach Scylla the ropes before the senshi of the kraken had to fight anybody. "This is Sailor Scylla," she said, because it was only polite. "You can't call her Scy. Only I can call her Scy."

Okay, so she hadn't gotten that much wiser to Nealite's game.

When the dark-haired Negaverser approached, she backed up, pulling the newer senshi with her. "Captain Aries said I was supposed to beat you into the ground," she informed them both, her tone that of a child reciting a lesson. "And also to go for the eyes. That's what you do, okay, Scylla? That instep stuff doesn't work with Negaversers."

Then her attention turned back to Hematite. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Sailor Virgo, Zodiac Senshi of Innocence, and in the name of my Princess I will destroy you, so won't you please give up?"

Darn those henshin phrases.

The weather was disagreeable even if you were wearing pants. Well, come to think of it, today was rather nice considering the weather lately. Moreso if you had pants and a snazzy pair of knee-high boots to go along with it! His downfall, of course, was a small top -- but who cares? Look! PANTS! BOOTS!

These items had very little effect when you happened to be crouching on a roof, looking like the world's most pathetic gargoyle.

Ever since he discovered the senshi-blessed ability to jump higher than any human, Merope became addicted to it. The rooftops were a brand new place to hang out, to watch the world go by... No wonder Batman always posed dramatically on top of Gotham City's tallest buildings, Merope thought. The view was incredible! He could see everything from here, from the movements of traffic to --

"HEY! What are you doing here?!"

Merope jumped and spun around, staring as the owner of the building (or was it one of their subordinates?) gaped at them from the door to the rooftop. He made a heroic reply of "Um," followed by "SorryIthoughtthiswasabandoooooned!" as he hauled senshi-butt out of there by jumping from roof to roof away from the offending building, before scampering down a fire escape. Well! Guess he had to find another location.

He was about to step out of the alley when the pair across the street caught his attention. Short skirts in this weather?! Granted the sun was out, but it wasn't exactly time to flaunt off the latest spring fa-no. Wait. Didn't Merope see those two girls before...?

Both Sailor Virgo and Sailor Scylla turned into the park then. Merope hurried across the street to catch up, stopping outside of the area itself. It sounded like...? He peered around the corner. More senshi?! No, they had pants. And weren't as colorful. Were these the Negaverse-members that he was warned about? Sailor Merope pumped a fist in the air. YESSSS! It was just what he was looking for! What better of a way to show off to two other senshi than to defeat their shared enemy?!

Merope crouched by the base of the park's brick wall and sprung up, steadying himself on top. From here... Hm. He stared, then looked around. How could he make an entrance? By dropping down and surprising the enemy from behind? By charging forward? Or...? His gaze settled on the melting snow, a lightbulb going off in his mind.

A snowball wasn't too hard to form, even if it was a bit drippy. Merope squeezed it into shape as he half-listened. You! Blahblahblaah, get along... Geeze. He examined his snowball and stood up slowly, hoping he didn't attract attention and that all attention was on the Sailor Scouts (and why not? They were pretty nice to look at, even the dreaded negaverser agreed! And speaking of...). Merope chucked the snowball at Captain Hematite, shouting, "HEY YOU! It's not nice to stare at the ladies! I'm Sailor Merope, and you're about to wipe out!"

"Afternoon, ladies," he purred, looking at Virgo first, then meeting Scylla's gaze with a wink. For the most part he seemed to have a distant, dangerous smile. However, a look of extreme annoyance crossed Hematite's features briefly as Nealite showed off her ring, without comment. As Nealite hung off one arm, the captain shook the boomerang he had hooked by one arrow-end with his fingers in the direction of the senshi pair accusingly, though he didn't look any more serious than his partner. "Threatening a woman in public, Virgo! It's no wonder people think you senshi are all dangerous psychopaths. You're going to have more headlines than Sailor Nea did at this rate-"

"s**t!" Something cold and wet had hit him full in the face. Hematite reached up his free hand quickly to brush the remains of the snowball off his face. Before he could give anyone an accusing stare, the culprit had announced himself. It was a scrawny boy senshi, who apparently had not mastered the concept of buttoning up shirts. Wow, either they were getting dumber, or - no, they were definitely getting dumber. Hell, one of those senshi had politely asked him to surrender! Rolling his eyes and exchanging a look with Nealite, he countered the pirate-costumed senshi with all the maturity he could muster. "It's a hell of a lot nicer to look at them than your ugly face!"

The Negaverse captain folded his arms, now looking at Sailors Scylla and Virgo as though he were trying to undress the two of them with his eyes - and being that this was Hematite, it was probably exactly what he was attempting. It was almost not even necessary, as their shirts and skirts were low-cut enough to not leave much to the imagination. Casually (but careful not to slice himself with the boomerang), he disentangled his arms again and waved the free one in the direction of Captain Hook. He flashed him a mocking smile before turning his eyes back to the two girls. "So, that's what you poor girls have got to choose from? That kid's about as masculine as a daisy. No wonder you're both so upset, you senshi don't even know what a real man is! Scy, was it? And Virgo? Let me demonstrate what you've both been missing out on."

He darted forward a few steps in the direction of Sailor Merope and let the boomerang fly on the last one. He hadn't been very careful, given he was trying to show off a little too much, so it probably wasn't going to come back on its own. At least it seemed to have taken off in the right direction.

Disappointment was an understatement for Nealite as Virgo backed away from the ring. There had been a small glimmer of chance that she could have some final fun with the Senshi of Innocence, but Miss No Tits was busy being the standard uppity senshi b***h and spoiling her fun.

Hmph.

She was on the verge with her comeback to the fashion disaster in front of her, when Hematite moved in for his first attack, silencing both sides as they watched him go for the cocky Merope. Eyebrows rose as she watched Virgo counter the attack, even subjecting her outfit to the blow of the sharp boomerang. It was always amusing when one of them decided to be the sacrificial lamb over these sort of things. Shame it wasn't Miss No Tits, really, trying to take the blow instead of Virgo.

Grinning, she shook her head and cast a glance towards the taller boy. "Why Hematite, I do believe he just called your bluff, dear. Maybe you should show him how much practice you really have with that thing?"