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Sue's luck only lasted until lunchtime that day.

As most days, he had slipped off of school property to track down the Rat Pack, his favorite trio of stray feline compatriots - Mackie, Stripers, and Bumper. Normally, Sue would be spending his time with them in feline form, trying to get in a bit of exercise in that form before the lunch period ended. After the events of the night before, though, he wasn't exactly feeling steady on his feet. It was like he'd put his head through the wringer - things felt jumbled up in there, as though not everything had been sorted out overnight. To be frank, he didn't think he wanted to be messing with anything Zue-related, not until he had some time to regain his confidence and approach the matter leisurely.

If he thought that he would have the chance, though, fate was on standby to throw a monkey in the works.

There was a scream. Almost as one, the Rat Pack bolted from the scene; Sue turned his head toward the source of the sound, and swore. It had sounded close... and he thought he could sense something unbecoming from the direction it had come.

This was no time for personal heroics. Sue needed to go in and evaluate the threat - then, he'd get back to the school, pull one or two of the Zodiacs that attended Meadowview with him, and they could confront it together. Nothing flashy, nothing tricky about it. As quietly as he could, Sue hurried down the alleyway, investigating from the concealment of the shadows.

That was not a youma. s**t -- that was not a youma!

It didn't matter what it was - youma, mugger, ancient spirit awakened from the dead - Sue had come here only to investigate and get help, nothing else. But this was a Lieutenant, and that realization woke up his system like he'd just downed a package of pure coffee grounds. To his mind, blithely walking in on a Lieutenant in any situation without a Zodiac behind him was a case of extreme carelessness - and he was just damned lucky that she was too busy stashing her ill-gotten goods to notice he was there!

Slinking nearer to the ground, Sue quickly thought over his options. She could look over his way at any second, and he'd be sunk. His best bet was to switch over to cat form and stealth away, and then dash back to the school to get help. Fingers brushing against the ground, Sue inhaled quietly. Just a simple transformation from one undetectable form to the next, no problem....

He felt the familiar tingling sensation that accompanied his transformations. But when it ended, he found he was no smaller - but still changed. Armor weighed on his shoulders now, his ears pricked up at the top of his head. Somehow, his transformation had gotten lost on the way to cat, and stuck him in his flashy, near-useless midway form. The one that, you know, wasn't undetectable to Negaverse agents.

".... Wha...?" It could have blown his cover to make such a sound, but it didn't really matter at this point, anyway - Zue was as much out in the open as if he'd strapped a flashing sign to his back that said GUARDIAN KITTY HERE! Still, he felt a dim hope - maybe he'd come across a really stupid Negaverse agent. Maybe she hadn't noticed he was there. Maybe he could still get into his cat form, make a break for it....

Change. Change. Come on, damn it, change!

Damn it! No matter how he grasped for it, the change to full cat wouldn't come to him - and it was too late now, anyway. To say that Zue had been noticed would have been an understatement, with the way the Lieutenant was eying him over like a butcher aiming to get the best cut of steak from a carcass.

This could be worse, though. It wasn't like he was face-to-face with Sagitarrius's killer; just some cute little girl playing dress-up in the Negaverse's uniform. He'd bunched up when Serandite had blocked his exit, but those muscles were slowly loosening now - not to any point that might be called relaxed, of course, but something that didn't look like a cat trying to fluff up until it was twice the size of its attacker.

"I don't play with Negaverse kids," Zue rumbled, shifting into a more purposeful ready stance, "I pummel them. Hand over that starseed you stole!" Not that he really knew what he would do with the starseed, if he got it... or what he'd do if his bravado failed. His human self saw the slight girl in front of him, and thought it was no contest - he'd been in fights against people bigger than him, and come out on tip - but in this skin, knowing how damned little he knew about the Negaverse and his own abilitie, Zue had no way to know what a fight would be like. He just hoped she'd back down, seeing that he meant business, and he wouldn't have to find out.

Serandite was attacking him with... a giant stuffed rabbit?

In any other situation, this would have taken time for Zue to process. There were things, you know, that you just didn't see every day. If there weren't a degree of secrecy involved in these dealings, Zue would almost be tempted to start snapping cell phone pics. And, you know, if it weren't him that the malevolent toy were after. That being the case, all that was on his mind was holy s**t, DUCK!

Zue's reflexes were good in this form - better than human, better even than the yet-unfamiliar cat - and he was able to slip under the blow. From here, though, he lacked the finesse this sort of fighting probably required - with an aggressive shout, the Guardian Cat tucked his shoulder in and tried knocking the rabbit right back into its mistress. God, he hoped this worked for something...!

Ironically, it was that same factor - Zue's considering Serandite to be child-like - that was giving her an advantage now.

In his human life as Sue, he had never had problems with taking advantage of openings. If you're in a fight, it doesn't matter if the other guy goes down - until they call out a surrender, you're still in a fight, and you don't stop fighting. In his past life as Zue - as little influence as that generally had on his actions - he'd been even less merciful. The rules were hold the line and protect the Princess, and neither of those calls left any room for hesitation.

But here - now. This opponent might have been an agent of the Negaverse, but Zue lacked experience. Instead, he couldn't get beyond the sight of a young girl - she looked like she was barely in high school, damn it - who had gotten knocked down by her own stuffed rabbit, trying to get back to her feet. Bleeding hand, obvious pain. What the hell was he supposed to do, shove her in the mud and steal her lunch money?

So he hesitated. He held off. He let her get up, and he didn't even attack her as soon as she was on her feet. Instead, he tried again to demand, "Give back that starseed and get the hell out of here," his voice rumbling with a bit more confidence now that he felt he had the advantage.

What? Was she really getting all pissy at him for not pummeling her into the dirt? Wasn't she the one dressed up in girly, flowy clothes, with pink all frickin' over, a bunny hairclip, and trying to smack him down with a stuffed rabbit of all things? How in God's name was Zue supposed to take her seriously, the way she was--

The rabbit went sailing high, high, high up - and then came crashing down. And for a brief moment, wide-eyed Zue observed exactly the way he was supposed to take her seriously. Because this looked like it was going to sting.

WHUMPF.

Bad news: The Guardian Cat hadn't gotten clear. Trying to leap out of the way, he'd gotten caught by the rabbit's large (and heavy!) head.

Good news: He hadn't gotten completely squished, either. His ribs hurt like the dickens now, and he was having difficulty wriggling out to freedom; but it was a hindrance, not a finishing move. In just a bit, he'd be out, though - and he wouldn't be giving Serandite a second chance, you could be damned sure!

Okay, armor or no - that ******** hurt! Zue had barely gotten a chance to clamber onto his hands and knees, and suddenly he was chewing on the dirt with a ******** spike being driven into his back. "Mrrrrrph!" came the angry complaint from the dirt - but while that damned rabbit's paw was there, Zue couldn't quite flail free from the crushing, grinding, painful attack.

Did he mention painful? OW GODDAMN IT OW, now he knew why all the girl senshi were outfitted with such uncomfortable-looking shoes!

Despite how painful it felt, the heel wasn't really able to do much damage - the thick leather armor was too much for it, although Zue was going to have a hell of an awkward bruise to deal with later. But, while Serandite wasn't really doing any lasting damage, Zue wasn't exactly figuring out a way out of his uncomfortable spot quickly, either. Instead, he just looked sort of pathetic, being squished on by a giant bunny.

Maybe Serandite wasn't one to be taken lightly, after all.

A reputation of escape that was not to be broken tonight.

To the outside, it might just seem like Zue had finally realized how serious his situation was, and decided to change his approach. Internally, though, the only thing that changed was a red light going green. He didn't even have to reach for it - one second he was in his humanoid form, and the next second, he was in the full feline form that he'd wanted in the first place.

Full feline form. Which, big though it might be in the cat world, was much, much smaller than both Serandite and her giant rabbit.

Suddenly, Zue wasn't thinking he was going to be getting that starseed back. In fact, he was thinking that if he didn't get out of there, fast, he'd be losing his own damn fast.

"Son of a b***h!" The cat was barely more than a purple streak. Zue had never been much good at clearing obstacles in this form, not when he'd tried going out with the Rat Pack before - but he found that, when properly motivated, he had no problems with navigating around alleyway debris, making quick jumps to get altitude, or even launching himself over high, previously daunting walls. By the time he stopped to see where he'd gone, he was damn near on the rooftops, panting, unable to even remember the path he'd taken to get up there.

In any other circumstance, he might have felt pretty good about himself just then. All Zue felt now, though, was shame. He'd completely, utterly failed - and he still didn't know what had gone wrong at the beginning there, when he'd been trying to change into cat form in the first place.

No time to angst about it now, though. If he hung around, the Lieutenant would be after him in no time. His only chance - and the chance of that civilian - would be to get back to school, get a Zodiac, and bring them back, just like he'd planned in the first place. So Zue went tearing off again, out of sight, just praying that Serandite would for some reason accommodate him and hang around until he got help.

Yeah, right.