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 Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 5:47 pm
Things were... heating up, as it were. Videos were hitting the net that pointed some of the fires starting up around the city on the Negaverse, only he wasn't so sure that was the case. Not after he'd seen what one of the other senshi was capable of in the fight with kaguya. He'd -seen- his own "Claws" suddenly flare to considerably larger size, and that hadn't been Nega-powers at work. He could easily imagine those sort of powers setting something on fire that they weren't supposed to. Hell, he'd trashed someone's car once....
Well that wasn't fair. Their car had already been largely consumed by a giant Youma, and his burning 'claws' had just... well... helped it along. And covered himself and Bellatrix in chunks of Youma.
He heaved a sigh, his breath fogging in the air, and brushed hair out of his face. It was at an awkward stage, and he hadn't thought to bring a tie to put it back after he transformed, so it was as chaotic and wild as the mane of the lion on his uniform.
Otherwise it was, so far, an surprisingly quiet night, which the way things had been lately, probably meant that something bad was happening somewhere and he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Go figure. He was all henshined up and nothing to do, at least not in the theater district. Maybe he should look elsewhere, but then, this was one of the few areas he hadn't seen a police car so far. THAT wasn't something he wanted to deal with.
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Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 6:30 pm
Painite was sitting on top of the roof of her favorite building in the city, the community theatre. She had, actually, spent a few hours there earlier in the day, though she hadn't been powered up at the time. No, she had been inside, working with some of the other techs to prepare for a dance show of some kind that was being put on the next day.
Nothing complicated. They had just gone over lighting and sound cues, song list, spot light cues: just making sure everything was in order and working for the company to use the next day. A lot of people rented the theatre to put on their performances, and often didn't know how to use the tech booth. It was up to them to make it easier.
Plus, it was excuse to be there, which Painite always liked.
Right now, she was getting ready to go out and do some energy collecting. She wasn't setting up a rig or a trap, as she often could be found doing before her hunts. No, tonight she wasn't going to focus on a trap, per se, but rather she wanted to test run the attachments she had been working on for Mr. Saddles.
Her weapon, Mr. Saddles, was a rather happy looking plush horse head on a stick. Cute, good for traps and some of the plots Painite concocted, but generally not good for physical fights.
But sticking metal arms and pointy bits on it? She hoped that would make him much more useful. Of course, it was cumbersome, attaching and changing the pieces of metal. Right now, she was just working on trying to get the first one one. It was a metal bat sawed off at the end with a hole, the size of Mr. Saddles' stick, drilled in it. She could attach it to the end of the stick, secure it in place and, hopefully, have a useful bat.
Maybe.
Looking down from the edge of the building, she scanned the street for any signs of life, and spotted something she hadn't been expecting. A senshi! Show time! She would follow him, and hopefully get the drop on him when he wasn't looking. Not that he was now, but she doubted she'd make the jump if she tried from here.
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Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 4:52 am
Maybe he should call some of the other Basterds, one of them had to have an idea where there was something going on. He hadn't picked up any distress calls, but that didn't mean a fight couldn't be easier...
He summoned up his Senshi phone and flipped it open, eyeing the little screen with a frown. Glancing around to make sure that he wasn't under surveillance by the fine Men in Blue of Destiny City, (He didn't bother to look up, since last time he'd seen Linarite in the past do some impressive jumps.) and wandered slowly around the general area.
...He just couldn't figure out why he felt the nagging feeling that he was missing something. There didn't seem to be a youma in the area. There were no plays going on now, no rehearsals that he was aware of... so it wouldn't have made sense for one of them to be here trying to collect energy unless they were waiting.
He stopped again and glared around, making a slow visual circuit of the area, but didn't seem to have spotted Painite.
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Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 7:17 pm
Oop, he had a phone in his hand. She had to get down to him before he had time to call anyone: the last thing she wanted were more Senshi running over here. She wanted to get the drop on one: and one was more than enough. Her fighting 'style' and skills weren't exactly the highest level, so she would need all the advantages she could get.
She moved to the edge of the theatre and bounced, holding Mr. Saddles high over her head as she plummeted down toward the Senshi, hoping her aim was right.
She hadn't taken enough time to really figure the inner geometry this time, but she was pretty sure she had the simple process of 'see target, jump at target' down by now, at least.
So if the Senshi did look up, he would see a smartly dressed Negaverse Lieutenant with her arms over her head, gripping a half baseball bat, half hobby horse contraption that was, unfortunately, facing the wrong way. She didn't notice until she was bringing the weapon down at his head: plushie side first.
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Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2011 5:42 am
BAFF!!!
Being hit upside the head with the plush end of a Hobby Horse was... any way you looked at it, pretty humiliating, and a pretty good reminder that he had not, in fact, been paying the level of attention he should have been.
Also it smarted, since hidden in layers of foam and stuffing there was the reinforcing metal pole, though at least he was fairly sure it would leave a short lived welt instead of a black eye. He did not need to explain another black eye like when Wolframite had hit him in the face with a jump rope.
"SONOFA."
Regulus dropped the phone, which winked out of visibility before it hit the ground, and in an manner far less dignified or impressive than he would have preferred, made a wild swing behind him to try and get a little distance between himself and the plush thing that had just boxed him upside the head, making one of his eyes sting and water. He did have the presence of mind to shout out an attack, the less powerful "Claws of the Lion", but with one of his eyes watering and no really good idea where his opponent was standing yet, the fire blades could easily go wild.
"Claws of the Lion, DAMNIT!" Was also not really the way the cry technically went, but when you'd been boffed in the head with a modified child's toy, it seemed fair to cut it a little fast and loose.
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Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2011 1:49 pm
Painite quickly noticed her mistake when his head didn't cave in or explode in a bloody mess, as she had predicted in her mind that it would. A bit dramatic, and unlikely even if she had hit him with the bat addition rather than the plush head.
Still, she felt a firm knock, and at least hoped to have given him a headache and disoriented him a bit.
Not enough, clearly, as he swung back to try and hit her.
"Oh, whoa!" She yelped, pulling backwards and feeling his hand just miss her face. "Bloody hell, wrong side," she cursed to herself, flipping Mr. Saddles around so she could hold him more like a bat. With a silly head on the end, that threw off the balance a bit. Maybe, she though, she should have practiced with it before setting out into battle.
When the senshi called his attack she decided to get away from him like lightning, yanking herself backwards and stumbling a few steps as she did so.
"What's the matter, Senshi?" she taunted, despite herself, "got a headache? Let me fix that for you!"
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Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2011 2:25 pm
"Maybe after you warm up a bit!" Regulus snarled, whirling to face her, gritting his teeth. He wanted this over fast, so he could go get an advil. She couldn't have been that high ranking, her weapon was too ridiculous, but you could do a lot with the wooden stick part.
"Noble Claws of the Lion!" The first attack had been bright flashes of fire that extinguished themselves as they struck the cold pavement, and this volley was notably brighter, and this time, he the chance to aim better.
He also had no intention of loosing to a Lieutenant, even if he had been out of the game for a little while. This one wasn't Moonstone after all. He still was a bit afraid of running into her alone, but Moonstone had just been... crazy.
"Didn't they teach you not to play with FIRE? Maybe you should run while you've still got your pride!"
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Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2011 2:55 pm
"Oh. Bollocks."
Painite watched as the Senshi, clearly much more powerful than she had imagined, or had learned to recognize, launched a second attack. The ones she had met so far only had one, or she had only seen one, but now it seemed they could have more than one.
She learned something new every day, though sometimes she wished she could try to learn things the easy way for once.
"I didn't quite know I was playing with fire, did I?" she laughed back, "but there's always a way to put out a flame. Stamping it out usually works. Think you'd like to acquaint yourself with the underside of my boot, senshi?"
Of course, she did her taunting from as far back as she could while still being heard. A show off, yes. A bit dumb and overly confident, yes. Brave? Not all the time: not when she knew she was likely to get her butt handed to her. Part of being clever meant to stay alive, so she could continue with her plots and plans another day.
So for now, she looked around for water, because water always beat fire. She'd learned that in the many video games she had played over time. Spotting a fire hydrant, she ran over to it, hoping to break it open with Mr. Saddles. The bat side, this time, she was sure to check first.
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Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2011 3:47 pm
Water typically beat fire, Fire certainly did no favors to skin or cloth, and neither did the fact that the Claws, where they did make contact, hit like blistering hot blades.
It was also questionable if a Bat would win in a contest of Lieutent/Bat/Hydrant, which was sort of like Rock Paper Scissors, but with an terribly angry Senshi hot on your heels.
Of course hydrants also only pointed in cardinal directions, unless there was a hose attached. Still. Regulus wasn't too eager for the resultant police and firemen that would be attracted to the hydrant if, by some miracle, she actually managed to hammer it open with a modified Hobby Horse.
"The only beating you're doing is beating tracks, Seabiscuit!" He snapped back. "NOBLE CLAWS OF THE LION!" He roared again, as though being louder and prouder could actually increase the power of his attack, and who knew, maybe it did. Never having been hit with it, he'd never investigated how much his own pride affected his sphere.
Another volley of blades flashed through the night toward Painite as she closed on the hydrant.
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Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2011 2:08 am
"s**t!"
Painite, who generally did not curse, would have felt bad for letting the obscenity slip if it weren't for the fact that she was under attack and being struck by very painful, fast little slicing blades of fire. She decided she hated them almost instantly.
Yes, definitely hated them.
Crying out in pain as one got her in the neck, her hand flashed up to the injury instinctively, which distracted her from her goal to break open the fire hydrant. But she had to invest her hope in the water and she gripped the bat in both hands swinging and slamming the metal into the hydrant. Even with her boosted strength, it took a few swings before the water burst from the hydrant, the nozzle on the side, suddenly, the high pressure water headed the senshi's way.
Of course, since it had taken her so long, she imagined it was where the senshi had been, but she was hoping the water would help. On her knees, clinging to the hydrant, bleeding and tired, she looked around for the Senshi. Her heart was thundering in her throat, it felt like, making it difficult to swallow or breathe.
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Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2011 7:31 am
Regulus was apparently intelligent enough to step out of the path of the part of the plug she was banging on, though he had to admit, he was impressed that she'd been able to get it open at all as, several bangs in, one of the plugs shot off and an jet of cold water burst into the street. That was going to take a lot of salt when it froze, but he hoped not to be there that long, since authorities would have undoubtedly noticed already.
He closed in on her aggressively, but stayed just out of immediate reach of curious weapon, lifting his hands in clear sign that he was ready to summon another volley.
"In the name of Regulus," He growled, eyes narrowed aggressively. If he was out of attacks, he was damn good at bluffing. "I command your surrender!"
He was not, as it happened, out of attacks, though he had also never tried -not- throwing the claws, and didn't want to find out that his gloves would catch fire if he held them too long.
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Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2011 2:41 pm
Painite clung to the fire escape, wishing she could direct the water, but she had nothing she could improvise with. She watched the Senshi as he approached, very much aware that she was in over her head.
Her Captain wouldn't be happy to learn she had been so easily defeated.
And Painite wasn't happy about it, either. She wasn't a sore loser, per se, but she certainly didn't like to lose. It made her feel like a failure, and that was not acceptable. It made her want to do something bigger, better, more dangerous: come at whoever beat her with a better plan, a stronger tactic: anything she could think of to come out on top. If she kept failing, she kept trying harder.
She wasn't sure she knew when to quit. Or even that it was an option, in the long run. She did, however, know when a particular fight was over, if not the war, and for now she was certain she had no chance against the senshi in front of her.
The sound of wailing sirens was, for the first time, almost a relief.
"Surrender?! Yeah right, prissy boy! You've not seen the last of me, I can promise you that!" She yelled at him, though from her position, mostly sitting on the ground, hugging the fire hydrant like a life line, it was rather like a mouse missing a leg yelling at a cat that it wasn't going to win. There was sheer determination in her eyes, but behind that, a definite throb of fear.
She pushed herself up, gripping Mr. Saddles so tightly her knuckles turned white. The sirens were getting closer, but she didn't move. She felt like she was trapped in an old Western stand off.
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Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2011 3:44 pm
"Surrender, or when you come to and spit out the teeth I kick loose, you can explain things to the police." Regulus growled. The threat reminded him of old nightmares, and he repressed the urge to shudder. She was a Negaverse agent. She'd kill people if she could.
It wasn't like he could take her somewhere and question her, but the police could.
"I bet it's hard to steal Starseeds with your hands cuffed, you murderous b***h." He added, hotly, as much to remind himself of what this toy wielding girl was capable of, as to point out that he was serious.
He half wished he had the stomach to finish her, and his lips curled back in a furious snarl, hands gripped so hard they looked as though he might simply summon a gout of flame, (something he was not actually capable of) fueled entirely by his anger.
He was torn between the fact that stopping her, permanently, right here would save lives, and the fact that it would feel like... no... probably be even be, murder. Could you weigh in the lives that she'd no doubt take, had probably already taken? Did he have that in him? Would he ever? He could hear the sirens over the sound of his own furious pulse in his veins, but they seemed less important than the decision.
"Lucky for you, I'm not that twisted." He snarled again, though she hadn't been privy to his internal debate, and might not understand. His voice was as blistering hot as his attacks had been, but instead he shot a fast, hard kick at her head. Senshi weren't as physically powerful as their corrupted counterparts, but they were fast, and for some that meant the difference between victory and defeat. Regulus hoped it made the difference between her escape and a pair of cuffs.
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Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2011 1:58 am
"What did you call me? How dare you! You don't even know me, you pompous monkey! I'm no murderer!"
In truth, she had never had need to kill anyone. Still new to the game, she had not been around the Negaverse long enough to have experience with steal starseeds: her missions were about energy, and the victims didn't die from that. Of course, if she had to, she would kill. Civilians or Senshi, whatever she was told to do, had to do to win.
"I'd kill you in a heartbeat, though," she added, not wanting to seem weak, "just like you would do to me! You're not better than me, no matter how you twist it. You hurt people just as readily as I do, and you do damage to innocent lives, all you Senshi do. The only difference is, I do it on purpose. You lot? You just pretend you're doing good."
When he said he wasn't that twisted, she assumed he had meant his comment from before, and that only fueled her anger and her words. She was sure that Senshi were just in denial about the death and destruction they caused. Or maybe she had just been writing too many stories on the 'terrorist' problems around here.
Painite couldn't do anything about his kick to her head, hitting the pavement and not moving. For a moment, even she didn't know if she was playing possum or actually unconscious, her mind whirling in a stunned daze.
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Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2011 10:09 am
Pompous monkey his a**. Regulus glowered at her stunned form, half debating delivering another ferocious kick, but he wanted to get out of here. The cops would be here in... what... seconds now?
He'd seen what the Negaverse could do... no... would do, and he wasn't buying any excuses. They'd corrupted senshi, they'd killed people, he'd HEARD of the slaughter at the alien-tree.... though he hadn't personally been there...
He wasn't going to swallow their lies. Not after everything.
The sirens were much louder now, and he thought he saw a glimpse of approaching lights. Leaving Painite to deal with her own problems, he turned and fled. It might have been a mistake, even if she hadn't killed someone yet he had no doubt she would, if not tonight, another night, but he still wasn't quite ready to take that last step.
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