Welcome to Gaia! ::

The sun was just starting to set. The park was small: a few trees lined the sidewalk, there was a see-saw, slide, and a few swings. The downtown park was lit in a pinkish hue and shadows were merging into one another. The shadow of Sailor Chibi Ixion was hidden by the shadow of the large oak tree he was sitting in. After dinner, the boy told his parents he was going out to play in the park for an hour or two. The pre-teen was just at the age where it wasn’t unusual for him to go spend some time unsupervised; he knew how to take care of himself.

Usually there were other people bustling around, but tonight it was unusually quiet. Ixion didn’t mind that much. As a new senshi, it felt obligated to power up and patrol. He was proud to do so. He felt like Spider-man or an X-men; he was special, with a secret identity and everything. Just like Spider-man, he was perched up in the branches of a tree, surveying everything below him. Black boots were swinging in the air, as Ixion kicked his feet back and forth.

The branches did little to hide him. It wasn’t even really spring yet. The branches were mostly naked, just barely budding.

The paint ball made a satisfying splat on Ixion's back. Green paint blemished his tidy uniform. The sudden, unexpected impact made the small boy teeter on his branch. He looked over his shoulder, his angry little face searching for the culprit. Spying the other senshi with the paintball gun, Ixion jumped down from his branch, landing like a cat. He had had practice jumping from small heights before, but being henshined made it that much easier.

A stony expression as plastered on Ixion's face, his brown eyes narrowed in a sharp glare. "Jerk, what'd you do that for?"

xxxxxThe youma sat a tree or two away from the bickering boys, its curved shoes twinkling with a sort of toxic, hypnotic powder. Of course, no one was even close enough to notice her, she was rather small really. Her outfit was decorated with hard candies, larger than the boy's head, but she smelled of a sweet sort of perfume. Something like freshly baked cookies mixed with a chocolate brownie sundae.

xxxxxBut as soon as the older boy spoke, she realized these two weren't normal. Their power was unearthly, in other words, valuable. The youma's eyes slitted cleverly as her powdered brown skin cracked open to reveal a toothy, scheming smile. Gently floating down from the tree using a combination of her instinct and dainty, rather useless wings, she hit the ground with a dull thud, and began pacing towards the boys. Immediately, claws emerged from her sleeves; claws made of broken candycanes that is. She lunged towards the boys, powdered, hypnotic sugar flying off her skin and floating gently to the ground.

xxxxxAs she grew closer to them, she saw the taller one had a gun, paint perhaps, but a gun nonetheless. Regardless, she smiled wider at the idea of a challenge. Which is just what this would be. A pleasurable challenge.

"No? Well that's good," Chaonis laughed.

There was a finesse to mocking children. Do it too meanly and one would just have a bawling baby on their hands. Be too nice about it and they would think they were being played with. And he wasn't interested in being a game.

There was another factor in this. This kid was a senshi. He didn't look like he'd been around long, or maybe that was the fact that he was just a little kid playing up and barring Chaonis' judgment. In any case, the kid had to learn about the knocks of being a senshi.

He grinned, though. The kid knew enough to know he'd be able to sense a youma, at least. He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.

"I thought I'd stay up, you know. Save the world a little... oh hey," he turned his head when he felt a youma nearby. Arching an eyebrow, he wondered what he was seeing, but he didn't really care. He grinned, tapping his hand thoughtfully against the paintball gun before looking at Ixion.

"You any good in a fight? You look pretty puny. You want me to handle that think for you? Wouldn't want you scraping your knee or anything. No one's gonna kiss it better out here."

"I can handle myself." Chibi Ixion gave a kurt nod at Chaonis as he braced himself for the attack. He tried to move out of the way of the candy-coated youma.

Her long claws were sharp, just like candy canes that had been sucked down to a deadly point. They grazed his left arm, tearing through the charcoal grey fabric of his jacket. He wasn't hurt too badly, the material took most of the damage, but cat-like claw marks showed up. The boy grimaced slightly from the stinging sensation of being cut; it was almost as bad a paper cut.

Chaonis had already started to rile the boy up, but now he was pissed. "Ixion Coal Rush!" A fist sized lump of coal formed in his hands. Taking aim, the coal-senshi threw his magic 'weapon' at the youma's head.

He stood ready, anxious to see what the older senshi would do. Secretly, he wished he could take notes.

((Chii! Decide if the lump of coal hits her in the face or chest, or dodged. If it hits, decide if it breaks apart into a mess of soot or falls to the ground intact!))

xxxxxThe youma stood with a stupid sort of awed look on her face, as the boy threw a lump of coal at her. While it didn't exactly do more damage than one would expect from a lump of coal, maybe enough to leave a human a bruise, that wasn't what upset the youma. Her chest was now covered in a soot-like black cover. Her bright pink dress was ruined, and the taffy that had sat as a sort of brooch was now useless.

xxxxxAnd one more youma was now pissed off.

xxxxxScreeching like a child with a temper tantrum, the youma raced towards the boy and kicked with full force. It landed, but the youma was only child sized. Who knew how much damage it had impacted on the boy.

xxxxxAs she kicked though, the youma noticed that the older boy was just standing there, almost mocking their fight. He was fully powered, the youma even sensed he was more powerful than the boy. So why wasn't he attacking? Perhaps the youma noticed too late.

xxxxxAfter kicking the boy, the youma quickly arced and made a grab for the boy's starseed. It was a longshot, and she probably wouldn't make it from her distance, but she had to try. It was calling to her.

xxxxxIt said, take me.

Chaonis' nerves bristled when the youma attacked the kid. He wasn't going to let the thing go too far, though every senshi had to take some knocks now and then. And the little boy looked like he was as tough as they came, he imagined, at that age.

Not wanting to risk a starseed going missing, though, Chaonis leaped forward to help him out.

He grabbed Ixion by the back of his paint stained shirt and hoisted him up like a rag doll, tossing him and catching him again once he was high enough off the floor. He had the younger senshi mostly over his shoulder now, loosely, just in case he wanted to hop down over Chaonis' back or get away as quickly as possible. He only picked him up because he had fallen, and the youma was close.

"Alright, play time is over, you stupid monster," Chaonis grinned, lifting his foot and stomping down at the youma pointedly. He looked at Ixion, eyes flashing.

"What do you think? Want to help me turn this thing into dust?" He'd let Ixion get the last hit, since it was technically his fight, his youma.

The young senshi slid down, off the older boy’s back. He stood parallel to him, eyes locked onto his. With a quick nod he agreed to team up against the sugar-dusted youma.

His jaw dropped a bit as he watched the youma change right in front of their eyes. Who knew they could do something like that!? Ixion’s expression changed from confident to concerned, those horns looked sharp.

And then it ran towards the two senshi. The boy glanced towards his battle companion; his eyes glimmered with determination … and a small hint of fear. He had never faced a real youma before, let alone one that seemed hell bent on crushing his starseed. Ixion hoped this would work.

“Together?” Ixion ready himself, he was all set to shout out his power any second.