Welcome to Gaia! ::

The shadow slithered, it’s body low as it moved along the shadows. In the darkness, a trashcan rolled from an alleyway and onto the open street, the metal loud in the silence as it turned on the asphalt before stopping. It went quiet. Then there was a scratching noise of something moving across the ground. Down the alleyway, a shadow moved out onto the street. Segment after enormous, slick, segment. Deep auburn, it moved past cars, low to the ground, and down the street. While Tate turned about to look at something else, it moved. It could sense the human’s starseed, and it was hungry.

In the open light, the creature lifted it’s body, rising up. The youma’s flickering antenna tapped around, reaching out to touch the girl to find her. Sense her, and encircle her with it’s millions of legs.



It had been a quiet night, and he felt relieved it was not cold or even raining. It wouldn’t be long till winter was officially over, or so he hoped, and it was back to warmer weather. Even if his uniform was very modest, something he was glad for considering the other ones he had seen, he did prefer being warm.

Rubbing his arms, he hoped over to another roof, ready to patrol for another hour and then head home. It was as he grabbed the edge of a roof that he saw a horrendous creature. It was massive, and it’s body was trailing out of an alleyway and into the street and it was covered in many disgusting legs. The very sight of the bug made him shiver. He hated bugs! Spiders. Bees. Mosquitoes. The centipede youma made him grip the edge of the roof, glad to be above. From his vantage point, he could see it was after a human, and he knew what it was after. Starseeds. He’s seen enough youma roaming the streets and was glad they didn’t bother with him. One of the many perks with being a Negaverser.

From above, he peered down and tried to see past the hat. It looked like a girl, but it was dark and he was too high up.

The girl turned about and ran. Expecting a scream, he cupped his ears, but saw that she only stood in place. Nothing. She was either a bug lover or was frozen to the spot. If she was the first, she was crazy to like a monster, but if she was the later, she was crazy for not running for her life. Youma or not, he knew if he saw anything as creepy as what he was seeing now, he’d be running down East Second Street so fast that he would get a speeding ticket.

Wanting to see what was happening and exactly how a youma took a starseed, he hopped down to a lower roof and started to walk to see the girl’s face. From here, he could see she was young, a student probably, and he wondered if it was anyone from his classes. It would be great if it was one of the girls that use to pick on him years ago, and he smiled at the thought, picking up his pace to get a better view.

What he saw first was the cropped hair under the barret, and he felt a sense of warning. Something inside of him said something was wrong, and he slowed down. He saw a pale cheek, a small noise, and then wide, gray-green eyes. It took him a moment to fashion all the pieces together before his lost his breath. “Tate?”

No…It couldn’t be! What was she doing out at night! Didn’t she already know it was dangerous?! Why wasn’t she at home playing video games or making cookies with her uncle?!!!

The centipede lowered it’s head, clicking two fangs together as it’s mouth dripped gobs of green on the ground. It was hungry and Tate was easy prey. Unmoving prey!

In an instant, he threw himself over the ledge and down onto the ground below, and started to run over. “ STOP!” He cried out to the youma, who turned it’s head to look at the Negaverser. For a moment it seemed to think it was getting another meal, but registered Wolframite as inedible. Ignoring him, it went back to Tate, but not before he threw out his own weapon and jumped in front of Tate, arms wide. “Stop it!” He couldn’t have this thing eat Tate!

Giselle Petrova's route homeward every Friday evening inevitably leaned towards Meadowview. Giselle was nothing if not routine, and to her, walking home from school meant using the route that she and Tate used to walk every day in middle school, the one that went by the high school and down several streets. She couldn't imagine walking a different direction even if now she was somewhat Tate-less when she took it.

It had been a quiet evening so far, and one of the few advantages of being Libra was that, despite the fact that Giselle appeared to be nothing more than a skinny, exhausted teenager, she was somewhat more confident than most civilians about walking the streets in the dying light. She had an ace up her sleeve, and it was a considerably more impressive ace than most of the senshi that lived undercover in Destiny City had. Giselle liked having more power than other people. It was one of the things that kept her going when she had schoolwork, makeup work, and patrols bogging her down. An inflated sense of superiority could fuel Giselle for months.

She heard a scuffling down the street she was about to turn onto, and half instinctively ducked into the shadows and edged forward to get a glance. Youma. Muttering "Libra Zodiac power, make up!" under her breath and grasping her henshin pen stowed neatly into her bag, Sailor Libra felt the warm, empowering light wash over her as she transformed. She blinked, taking a second to catch the scales and get used to balancing on shoes that were now tiny heels. Looking up, she darted into the street, announcing "In the name of Libra, I will tip the balance!" As long as she was going out of her way to save someone, she might as well stick to the formalities of the procedure.

It was then that she took in the scene. It wasn't just a youma and an anonymous citizen, it was a youma and Tate.

A youma, Tate, and Wolframite.

"G-T-Citizen! Run!" There was an edge of sheer desperation in her voice that would have seemed out of place to anyone who knew Libra. It sounded too personal.

The look she caught over his shoulder was--disappointed. Tate stared at him, trying to place the face, but a new voice was invading. God, she didn't want excitement like this. A senshi?! The one from around her neighborhood! Closer, she looked wildly familiar. That--the half-recognition of their faces-- did spur her into motion. Two people shrieking for her to run? Well, God, she would. Shoving herself to her feet, she cast a last regretful glance at her beat-up gray bag. It was partially slimed with whatever that green crap was that was coming from the mouth of that... thing, and retreated--

but only so far. She stopped at the corner; both of these people were too familiar for her to just abandon them...

If they asked, she wanted her bag. Her eyes were huge as she stared at them--but particularly at the boy. He was like a little kid. He was like a little kid and he was going to fight off a monster bigger than she was. She couldn't leave.

As much as being a Lieutenant made him stronger than a normal human, he still lacked upper-body strength, and he felt his arms pull and shoulder pop as he tried to keep the centipede back. With a hundred legs, holding onto one wasn’t going to do it, and as much as he anchored his feet, the youma still continued to creep forward, it’s antenna smacking the pavement for the prey it no longer felt. Libra wasn’t making it easier on him either, but he didn’t have to stick around for her. He just needed Tate to run back home and then he could text her to see if she was okay. While the centipede not cooperating was expected, he looked out to check how far Tate went to see her looking back at him from farther off. She WASN’T running away.

As much as he liked Tate, he wanted to call her stupid right now. Instead he shouted at Libra. “This isn’t mine, you moron!” He wasn’t that high up to have a youma of his own, and these ones were just the wild agents that went to collect starseeds. They had no owners aside from the Negaverse and only ignored agents than listen to them.

Just as he tried to pull back, the leg he held came off entirely and he fell hard on his a**. The centipede moved on, but reared back up when Libra jumped on and used her scales to pull the creature back. Looking more like a cowgirl than a senshi, he wondered why she didn’t just use one of her attacks. Even upon meeting her, she had always used her scales. While he wasn’t for helping, he knew he had to stop the youma if Tate wasn’t going to run. Looking at the disgusting leg in his hand, he decided to make use of it. Leaping up over it’s body, he gripped on and aimed as best he could for a segment he hoped was vital. With something so long, he didn’t know where it’s heart or major organs were. Hoping for the best, he dug the claw into it’s body. Green juice sprayed out, and he covered his eyes.

The creature was still moving, and Tate was still frozen. Damnit! Gritting his teeth, he looked up to see the creature move about, and felt himself fall down to the ground. “You stupid senshi! Do some magic or something! Aim for it’s head!” Might as well make use of the annoyance.

As much as she was getting on his nerves, REALLY getting on his nerves, she was right in that he wasn’t doing much. He was trying, but as life had proven, trying wasn’t good enough. Not when someone’s life was on the line. As much as he didn’t want to, as much as he REALLY didn’t want to, breaking off the antenna of the creature sounded like the best idea. He could spend all night jabbing at random segments of the centipede without any success, and he didn’t have the luxury of time on his hands.

Picking himself up, he clenched his teeth from making any sort of rebuttal and leaped up. At this point, the youma had stopped, but all of it’s many legs were making frantic movements, trying to get the senshi off. As her hold curled it’s neck back, several segments of it’s body started to slice open, spraying green about the place. There would be a few people who would find something more unpleasant than bird crap on their car come the following morning.

If there was one thing he could do, it was leap, and he made it as high as the centipede’s neck, and started to use the creatures limbs as a sort of ladder as he moved up, not bothering to even look at Libra. She was keeping it steady, and he was going to go after it’s head. This wasn’t someone doing better than anyone else, since they would both be taking it down. That also meant this was teamwork with a senshi, which didn’t settle right with him at all. Especially when that senshi was Libra.

Near the head, he was faced with the up close version of a bugs face. Tiny eyes, and a revolting mouth that was gnashing and making noises. It was enough to make him squirm, but he had bigger problems. It was hard to get a foot hold, and farther up, the creature was moving more wildly. He gripped as best he could, and reached up for the antenna, which were moving around in all directions. Gripping the base of each, he started to pull, willing them to break. With a hard, pulling yank, he first one broke free, making a white puss pour out. Dropping it, he went to reach for anything he could that wasn’t now slick with bug gunk and wasn’t trying to tear him to pieces. Pulling in, he strained to get the last, farthest antenna off. Pulling hard, it too broke free, but with nothing else to hold onto, he lost his grip.

A sharp pain shot up into his thigh, and he looked down to see the creature’s mouth being into his side and upper leg. Usually it wouldn’t have done anything to him, but in the process of being killed, it was trying to save itself. He let out a painful cry, and shoved himself free, falling down and catching himself in time to land.

Above, the centipede was flailing, and more blood started to pour form it’s long neck. It was dieing.

((You can NPC the youma, kotaline.))

Tate watched, stunned. It was like a horror movie or a manga, except... in real life. The blood from the boy's injury was real. The mess left by the monster was real. She shuddered, brushed her shoulders like that would make the disgusting feeling go away, and then she walked back towards the two people. "Are you kidding," she said, staring at the blonde senshi. "He's hurt. Do you expect me to just l--" She paused, a familiar guarded look coming over her face. "--I need my wallet."

Their banter had shaken her a little, but then, Tate had been pretty sure the world wasn't everything she had been told it was for a long time. Her bag was long gone--with it her Hamlet textbook, she supposed. Her keys were in her pockets, her cell phone as well. All the necessaries, really--but the wallet, she did need, so she walked over the place she'd remembered dropping her bag. She looked up, though, her glance worried as she stared at Wolframite. Didn't she know him? The senshi, too... Both of them looked really familiar.

"Do I know you two," she asked, finally pulling her bag out from under a darkening chunk of viscera.