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Patrols had been organized. Castor and Taranis had seen to that before the Halloween Masque, before the kiss with that Nega, before losing the crystal. It was still a small grouping. The boys simply reached out to who they could and tried to explain their points. Taranis did most of the talking of hard facts, but Castor popped in to smooth things over, to do some of the convincing.

It was by the strange sort that Taranis ended up assigned to patrol with Polaris.

The two had a strained relationship at best. Taranis knew Polaris was the very same spoiled Aurora he had met nearly a year ago. She still didn't know who he was, and he was not about to tell her. Still, so long as they didn't talk too much, this patrol session should go just fine.

Rounding the corner, Taranis came up beside the senshi of magnetism, his hands drawn. Without much thought, he shouted, "Taranis Mud Blast!" and sent a sloppily thrown ball of wet sand spiraling toward the youma. In response, the beast shot of a flurry of pins, slice-and-dicing his attack and degrading it to little more than a splash of mud flying in all directions.

The senshi of sand hit the deck, hands over his head, to dodge the spikes with a grunt.

The ground was cold with the chill of winter, and the smooth cement stuck to his cheek as Taranis pulled himself back up, leaving an angry red patch of irritated skin. A curse spilled from his lips. "Can't it just be easy tonight," he murmured, rubbing at his wrist.

No sooner had he stood and more things were flying at them -- this time, metal spoils pulled by the senshi to his left. Again, Taranis hit the deck. "Damnit, Polaris. A little warning?" The senshi of sand was clearly in a mood that night.

Back in the car, a woman gripped the steering wheel, eyes blurred with tears as the youma ripped closer and closer into her vehicle.

Taranis was off his game. No, worse than that -- he had gotten off of his game hours ago and was now soaking in a bathtub miles away, listening to some shitty talk radio. Dani's near-death had been one helluva distraction. This bullshit with Castor was making his head spin so fast he feared it might come off.

So when Polaris asked him a question, he shot her a confused look and said, "What?" The words caught up, and he nodded suddenly. Taranis flipped onto his back and ventured a glance at the youma. He was rewarded with a spine to his arm. A gloved hand reached up to pull it out, but instead, the senshi of sand ended up snapping it in half, leaving the tip protruding from the flesh of his arm. A sudden feeling of dopey euphoria flooded his veins. Before the senshi could even curse, he instead did something much more unexpected.

He giggled.

Taranis rolled onto one side, cupped his mouth with his hands and began to giggle like a schoolgirl staying up past her bedtime to watch the season premiere of Hannah Montana. "I think..." he sputtered, voice raising several octaves, "that there is something," more giggles, "in the tips of those," another giggle, "spiiiines." Polaris had been hit with them too, but apparently, the tip had not broken off in her skin.

It was unclear what had happened, but it was probably a decent guess to say that the youma had just roofie'd Taranis.

A mess of giggles on the ground, Sailor Taranis said, "Taranis -- haahaaa -- Mud -- ohhohhooo -- Blast!" A pathetically wobbly ball of wet sand appeared at his fingertips. He sent it sailing in a looping arc from the place were he was prone just as Polaris readied her attack. Her attack hit like a sledgehammer, pinning the youma to the hood of the car.

Before it even reached the target, the mud ball began to break apart. Most of it spilled to the ground, leaving only the smallest chunk to rocket forward and tap the youma. As fate would have it, that was all that was needed. With a pop! and sizzle, the youma dissolved into dust on the hood of the car.

Normally, this would take away its effects, wouldn't it? Apparently not. Just like when a youma broke a senshi's arm, Taranis was just as affected by the toxin as he had been when it was still kicking. Blue eyes searched for Polaris. "Ch-check on the civil-haha-ian and then get me, um, out of here!" The sentence dissolved into breathless laughter.

The giggles rattled his body. When Polaris offered a hand, Taranis tried to take it, but his arms and legs felt like jelly. He simply sagged back to the pavement nearly tugging her with him. The giggles faded slowly, but he was left in the drugged-out euphoria of whatever chemical concoction had been in the spines of that youma. It was clearly a toxin designed to disorient and then immobilize. But it couldn't last forever, right?

Taranis blinked several times, wiggling his nose like he was just aware of its presence on his face. "I feel weird, Ponaris." He stopped, laughed. "Ponaris. I meant to say... Polaris." Another laugh, then his head lolled to one side. "Oh this week keeps getting better and better." The words were slurred, as if he had been drinking, and the bob of his head was like that of someone on pain medication.

When Polaris fell, the senshi of sand hardly moved. His body seemed too taxing then, the muscles needed to control it too complicated. So instead, he just sort of went all loose, allowing himself to roll and buck as the warming toxin worked its way through his system. This wasn't the first time he had been hit by a biochemical youma, but it didn't make it any less frustrating.

Good thing Taranis was hardly in a head space to be thinking about that.

Taranis felt Polaris wrap her arms around him for a second try. His head lolled to her shoulder. "Better time?" The words dissolved into laughter. "I saw my best friend kissing the girl who killed my girlfriend three nights ago." He slapped at the pavement to try and help give Polaris some leverage. "Killed my girlfriend in front of me." He waved one hand. "But she's better now."

Um, what?

Castor? Of course Polaris would know. Despite their obvious differences, Castor and Taranis were sort of an item -- platonically-speaking -- on the senshi scene. They worked in tandem, tried to get people together, and otherwise made it clear that they were prepared to do whatever it took to make the senshi a more organized fighting force. That drive had originally been spurred by Dani's death at the hands of a faceless Negaverse agent. What did it mean now?

The thoughts were there in his head, but everything was blurred and complicated by the toxin. "Castor kissed Linarite. Linarite took Magellan's starseed." His hands bounced back and forth as he said it, slumping even more over Polaris's shoulder. "Magellan got it back. I don't know how. Magellan is alive. Like an angel. But angels aren't real." One hand went on either one of Polaris's shoulders. "Castor kissed the Nega that I have to kill. Why?" His voice raised an octave. "I mean, why would he do that? Why would he do that, Ponaris?" Another giggle. "Polaris."