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Walking along the rooftops of his favorite restaurant in Chinatown, Sailor Taranis wasn't feeling so great. He might have senshi strength, speed, and healing, but that didn't mean that malnutrition and lack of sleep couldn't put him under the weather. It started as a cold. Dani fed him vitamin C and zinc and told him to take it easy a few nights. Coming from her, it was a little rich. Her schedule was packed tighter than a can of sardines.

Still, he intended to listen. Dani cared about him, and she had far more experience as Magellan than he did as Taranis. Logical to a fault, Taranis felt comfortable deferring to her for guidance. What he didn't anticipate was how quiet Hillworth could be at night.

Sneaking out had become a nightly occurrence for Taranis, one that his roommate Jaimie was thankfully mum about. If the boy had suspicions, he didn't voice them. Taranis assumed he thought he was going to see Dani anyway, which was mostly the case. Except those nights she was also Sailor Magellan.

Trapped in the quiet of his room, he couldn't take it. So he left, transformed into fuku, and spent his night wandering the streets of Destiny City.

He also did a lot of sneezing.

Lost in his own head, Sailor Taranis did not notice the lizard youma that slinked across the roof toward him. Well -- he didn't notice it until it tackled him. Youma and senshi limbs entangled as both went sliding down the angled pagoda roof of the restaurant. It wasn't too high off the ground, but the prospect of face-planting on cement was not desirable.

At the last second, Taranis grabbed hold of a tile -- just in time to be caught dangling off the side of the roof with a large lizard youma hanging off of his back.

To add insult to injury, Taranis kind of had to sneeze.

The lizard was lapping at the back of Taranis's neck. It was creepy at first, but then it started to hurt. Burn, actually. "s**t," he cursed, wriggling his shoulders in a desperate attempt to break free. The lizard youma appeared to have the magical gift of acid saliva, which made the pain of hanging off a rooftop suddenly worse.

It was enough of a distraction to keep Taranis from picking up on the two globs of positive energy glowing beneath him. Even if he wanted to look, he wouldn't be able to do it with out plummeting to the ground. All he knew was that the two beings below him were allies, and that was good enough for him.

"Get it off!" he shouted, voice echoing down the empty street. Normally, Taranis balked at help, but right then he needed it. Badly. "It's got ******** acid spit!" The collar of his shirt sizzled, and he wriggled again. He wanted this thing off of him. NOW.

The youma was smaller than the average-sized starseed fiend. What it lacked in size, it made up for in agility and reaction time. As the beam from Iris's attack moved close, it bent to the side, sparing the creature's head. It let out a shriek as the rainbow dug into its flesh, spitting a blob of acid on the nape of Taranis's neck. It was his turn to yell.

The flesh sizzled and puckered, and Taranis wriggled again. This time, the creature was too distracted to latch on. It hopped back on to the roof, but left its front left leg behind. The limb still clung to Taranis's fuku, twitching.

With a groan, Taranis pulled himself back on to the roof. The youma hissed and he took off at a run, out of sight of Super Sailor Iris on the ground. He hopped up to the tallest tier of the pagoda and shouted, "Taranis Sand Blast!" The ball glided over his fingertips, and he launched it.

The lizard youma dodged left, but its tail took the hit and detached in a cloud of acidic mist. The remaining sand toppled over the side of the building, along with the youma tail, and fell straight toward the spot where the rainbow senshi and her guardian cat stood.

The restaurant wasn't a very tall building, but that didn't make Sailor Taranis excited about the prospect of falling off of it. He'd fallen off buildings before. It wasn't fun. At this point, he'd developed more of a knack for falling into a roll to protect his joints, but it was a process largely done through trial and error.

The sound-only show that ********* and Iris were getting grew louder as Taranis and the youma more toward the ledge. A roof tile skittered off the side of the building under Taranis's weight, and he struggled to regain his balance. The youma lunged, landing squarely on Parker's chest. Its wound spewed acidic ooze like its mouth spewed acidic slime. For such a small youma, it packed a nasty punch.

The hair on Taranis's arms shriveled, and his fuku began to fill with holes each place slime fell. In a blind attempt for relief, Sailor Taranis threw the youma away from his body. It worked, and the lizard youma went cartwheeling off of the roof, destined to land on the ground below.

Unfortunately, the motion set Taranis off balance too and he stumbled backwards off of the roof with a mumbled curse.

Sailor Taranis was in the process of reorienting himself into what he thought would be a magnificent dodge roll when something wrapped around his ankle. For a moment, he had a flashback to the elevator ride with Dylan and the frog youma that seemed intent on slapping them around with its tongue. Something bright and colorful gleamed out of the corner of his eye. Was that a... rainbow? He was being saved by Rainbow Brite?

Perhaps 'saved' was not the right word.

Super Sailor Iris latched onto his boot (why were people always suspending him by that?) and then flung him right after the youma. She was right about one thing: the youma was soft enough to not break bones. Unfortunately, it was also filled with acid ooze.

Upon contact, a gash opened in the soft skin of the lizard youma. The jet of ooze streak across Sailor Taranis's neck and fell in an arc over his shoulder, searing his skin raw and red wherever it touched. It did not help that he was also winded. "What the ******** are you doing?" he snapped, stumbling backwards. Frantic hands ripped his red ascot from him fuku and threw it to the ground where it sizzled.

The youma let out a screech and then dissolved into a pile of dust, but Taranis did not immediately notice. He was too busy being acid-burned and pissed.

Sailor Taranis felt a little like he was watching someone do shtick. Iris was the ventriloquist and ********* was the puppet? Maybe. His eyes darted back and forth between the pair, even as his skin burned. He peeled off the sash at his waist and wiped off the remaining ooze that sizzled. It hurt. Like a b***h.

"You could've gotten on the roof," he said, narrowing his eyes. Her energy signature was strong; it meant she was a Super Sailor. "Super Sailor, right? I've only been doing this a month, and I would've known to get on the roof."

Apparently Taranis was not feeling grateful.

His eyes roved to the cat in the senshi's arms when it complimented him. He didn't acknowledge it. Taranis knew he'd done well enough on his own. Being told as much was unnecessary, even if it did bolster his confidence.

"No team," he said. "I patrol alone, or with Sailor Magellan." He wasn't sure why she was asking. Granted, he wasn't even aware that there were senshi who did fight in teams. His arrangement with Magellan was more out of preference, not for any great battle strategy.

When Iris moved to rip off her bow, Taranis held up a hand to stop her, but he was too late. "I don't need that," he said, ripping his sash in half to continue dabbing at the places were any residue might be lingering. What he really needed was a shower. Stat.

He winced as he worked, eyes straying back to the senshi. "Do you always carry the guardian cat around?" If Taranis had to bring Derp to every battle, he would probably quit being a senshi.

...maybe.

It appeared that the ooze had a peak sizzle rate. After it was on his skin long enough, it degraded to dust and disappeared into the quiet breeze. Hm. Good. Sailor Taranis shook out his long sash like a dirty floor mat, beating it against the side of a nearby lamp post.

"You're *********." He nodded toward the guardian cat. "Who's the one who is roof-resistent?"

Apparently he believed that the cat was a better source of information than the senshi. It probably had something to do with how well-spoken she was compared to the Senshi of Rainbows. His eyes fell to the little purple cast on the guardian cat, but he did not issue any concern or sympathy. They were crime fighters. Getting injured was in the job description.

It was odd to think that he was more comfortable speaking with the cat than the girl who held her. Sailor Taranis simply could not see past Super Sailor Iris's brassy, cut-off dialect. It made him narrow his eyes and step backward. She probably didn't like to read either. She probably thought philosophy was stupid. Taranis was in a bad mood, and Iris was the lucky recipient of its whining.

It was easy enough to ignore Iris and talk to the cat. ********* appeared to be the brains of the operation. "I don't shake hands," he said, tying his sash back around his waist all manly like. Bright eyes flickered to Iris's face. "That rainbow slicing a new trick for you? Could've taken my ear off, you know." He wasn't exactly complaining. He wasn't thanking her either.

It was evident by the way he assessed his fuku that he was gearing up to leave. But first -- a picture. Taranis pulled out his senshi phone and snapped a photo of Iris. "Adding you to my phone." He was just saying, not asking.