She shouldn’t have come out tonight. She had had a very rough day at work, and was almost beyond exhausted. But…she couldn’t ignore the itch to go outside for at least a few minutes. She trudged through the woods, stepping over a log that had fallen and was half covered in snow. There had been some more of the cold wet stuff that had fallen the night before, and it was beautiful, but very cold once again.
Caelian gave a tired sigh and was about to head back home, finally going to go to bed when she heard the sound. An awful scuffling and a scream coming from somewhere to the left of where she was. She quickly hurried over there and saw a sight that made her sick to her stomach. It was one of those youmas again, and it was hurting someone. She swallowed and wished she had something better to fight with rather than her silly powder puff, but, she had to do something. “Monster, over here. Hello! Come and get me instead!”

That seemed to do something at least. The youma looked up and gave a feral grin, leaving the civilian and heading right for Caelian, who promptly took off running. It was a good plan, get the youma as far away as possible, then worry about how to destroy it.

Shalott was getting used to this life. Work, home, patrol, and then possibly time with Tony before bed. On rare occasions she got them both at once and was growing impossibly used to sleeping by his side. That's all they'd done and would continue to do for a while, she mused, and she was alright with that. Whatever it took for them to be on solid ground. The Page shivered, hugging herself. The outfit she had, while oddly stylish, was not much for the cold. The only reason she thought she could tolerate it at all was that she was usually in motion and she was powered up.

She was moving around the city and was about to give up for the night when she felt a power signature unlike her own and Camelot's. Weaker than his, the same as hers. Screams sounded and then she felt the energy speeding away with something dark trailing behind it. She thought of Benitoite and shivered but gave chase anyway, trying to cut them off. She knew this section of the city and there was a parking lot nearby surrounded on three sides by a wall. If she could somehow alert the power to bring the youma there...

Shalott headed for the space, darting toward it knowing the two other energies would intersect it, or very nearly, and hoped that whoever it was would feel her and come, leading the bad guy into a trap.

Caelian kept running as fast as her legs would carry her, and blinked, hesitating a moment when she felt another sort of energy coming up. It felt…better than the thing that was following her, so she ran towards it, going right into the parking lot.

When she reached the wall however, she panted, needing to stop and catch her breath. This was not what she had bargained for tonight, and she wasn’t quite sure how she had managed to run so far.

The youma seemed angry it had to give the lady such a long chase, but seemed pleased it had its prey trapped like this. How easy it would be to just feast on the power, now that it didn’t have anywhere else to run to

Shalott was waiting by the time the Page appeared. Clearly she was pretty new but that was ok. She was new herself in the grand scheme of things. She didn't mind helping out where she could in the same way Camelot helped her. As Caelian came toward her she smiled, waving her in. She was ready for the youma behind her and if they could box it in it would be much easier to trap. She blocked the Page with her body, giving her time to breathe.

The youma didn't bother her much. She'd dealt with more than a few by now. It was getting it trapped and keeping Caelian safe while she caught her breath. She made sure the monster saw her, stepping forward. She wondered how long it would take for the thing to realize it was lead into a trap if it ever actually did. They could have formal introductions later. Right now Shalott just wanted to dust this thing.

"Come and get me." she taunted.

The youma growled, sniffing the air. Something was different, it could see that…but…the powers were both here now! Two snacks…it didn’t matter if it looked like someone different than the one it had been chasing…so long as it was the same type of power. The creature crouched down, preparing to attack Shalott, wanting to just get this meal over with, then go out and steal even more energy, even more starseeds. The whole city was just one large buffet, after all.

Caelian all but collapsed when the other Page moved in front of her. What had she been thinking? Her lungs felt on fire from the cold and she coughed some, completely winded from the flight to escape the danger…After a few moments though, she drew in some good breaths, then stood beside Shalott. “Thank. Thank you.” She panted, seeming relieved to have some help. “Let’s get this beast.”

The youma smirked, then jumped, claws extended, jumping at both women, hoping to have a very easy time and a very easy kill.

Shalott was ready for the attack. She didn't want to have to vocalize a need to get the youma behind them, to pin it in between the three walls so it couldn't escape easily. It didn't seem to want to but she wasn't going to take any chance. Youma weren't particularly smart of logical, Camelot had made that plain, but they did have an instinct to survive and hunt. She wasn't pleased when it charged them and she darted to the right, trying to distract it to her. Her fellow page was speaking again but that didn't necessarily mean she was up to a fight.

"Come and get me." she chanted, taunting it in her direction.

If it expected them both to be easy targets it would be mistaken. She was trying to form a plan while she moved, her mind racing to A. trap the beast and B. kill it. "We need to corner it!" she called to her companion. "Any ideas?"

The youma looked towards Shalott, a stupid expression on its face at the realization that the prey had moved. It crouched down, growling, then darted for the woman once more.

Caelian was up now, and while her breathing was still somewhat labored, she managed to shout at the youma, drawing its attention. The creature decided to go for the loudest one first then, since clearly she was asking to be attacked. With one leap from the youma, and a hop, skip and jump from Caelian, they had the creature in the corner.
“Well..that was a pretty good idea, don’t you think? Now, let’s get rid of this thing.” She looked at her all but useless powder puff and sighed. “I suppose, we could just kick it until it dies, right?”

"That's been what I usually do." She shrugged, motioning to her equally as useless corsage. They could both only hope for something better down the line. Shalott felt strong, though, and prepared. She'd done this before and wasn't worried about doing it again. They could, and would, survive. The youma could not say the same. It was growling, though, and anxious. This was the second time it charged without getting anywhere. It did not yet realize it was trapped.

"Move forward slowly." Shalott instructed quietly. "We need to give it less room to run."

They needed to make if feel trapped and desperate as she had a ton of times before. Times like this a black belt came in handy. She grinned at the youma and tried to look around for something useful. "If you can find something that might do us some good go ahead and grab it." A 2x4, a pipe, anything really. She just want to take this down and go home. She winked at her fellow knight.

"Good to meet you anyway."

Caelian moved closer to the youma, keeping her eyes on it, at least until the green haired page mentioned finding some sort of weapon to use against the creature. How was she supposed to find something…and keep her eyes on the beast? Ugh. All of these monsters…it was just too much.

She chewed on her lip for a minute then glanced behind her, seeing a trashcan lid just laying there. Perfect! The white haired page ducked away, then came back with it, crashing it against the youma’s head. “Get lost you scumbag, nobody wants monsters like you around here!”
Having something besides a powder puff in her hand made her feel a hell of a lot more useful. Maybe they would actually win this fight now.

Shalott tried not to laugh outright as Caelian yelled at the youma. Telling it to go away was precisely what they didn't want to happen unless it was turning to ash. Making it disintigrate would take some more work but at least the eager page had the right idea. She remembered some of her first fights with youma and though they seemed far away now she could remember how useless she felt even with her training. Youma don't really pay attention to karate sensibilities. Rather rude of them.

"Don't get too cocky." she warned, wondering if she'd become yoda now to someone else just starting. She didn't know the girl's skill level.

Still the thing growled after being bashed on the head, clearly not happy by this turn of events. It snarled and snapped at the silver haired page. Shalott frowned and kicked it's face for that, and it snapped at her in return for her effort, almost catching her boot with its strong jaws. She yelped and took a step back. This was not going to be easy. The fur on its back stood up as it growled again, looking between them both. It was slowly understanding its position

Caelian nodded. She was getting a bit cocky, wasn’t she…but…she had a trashcan lid…that had to count for something. Again, she swung the lid hard on the youma, hitting it right on the back at the neck. “Don’t you think you can just keep…trying to eat us you stupid awful monster.” She hissed, kicking at the creature, then bringing the lid down on it once more.
“We’re not going to be intimidated by you. So…just die already.” If a youma was anything like an animal, maybe showing no fear would be a good way to keep it distracted…and keep it away from them. Or just. A good way to get the strength to kill it for good.

"They won't eat you." Shalott said passively, glancing sidelong at her companion while keeping an eye on the thing. "but it will steal your energy or your starseed if it can." That death was worse in her opinion as they would be taken away from the right side of things and would be helping the Negaverse. The youma didn't like getting bashed in the head a second time and snapped at Caelian before lunging at her. Shalott was quick, kicking the beast hard to knock it off course.

Apparently it was not affected by fear one way or the other.

The thing was all business now, attacking more than staying cowed and the Page of Earth knew it wouldn't be easily put down. She could see where it was vulnerable and already hurt, favoring it's side where it had been kicked and bashed twice with a trashcan lid. "keep to its right side." she warned her fellow knight, moving into action.

“Starseed…these monsters can steal your energy? Well, that’s an annoying thing, now isn’t it.” Caelian sighed, then pursed her lips. This fight was getting annoying…She was very much ready to just go home and get some sleep.

Once more, Caelian struck the youma with the trashcan lid and kicked it as hard as she could, right in its right side. “And…just how many of these things to you think are in the city, do you have any sort of estimates? They’re really horrible, don’t you think?”

She really hoped that the thing would explode like the last one did, and she hoped it would explode quickly.

"I've dusted a lot of them." She shrugged, not putting herself to a number. She didn't want to think about it as the youma started to crack. With some it was a quick disintegration. With others it wasn't so much. The sound of the lid echoed through the alley and Shalott cringed. She didn't want to draw attention to herself or either of them, really. She lashed out in a quick combat combo, two kicks in quick succession with a punch at the end. The creature snapped, catching her bracer and biting in so hard she let out a yelp.

She tugged her arm away, looking rather angry now and watched the thing crack further. "One or two more times ought to do it." she panted, trying to see past the pain. "These things are the pets of the Negaverse. They can steal energy yes." Perhaps it was a little late to answer the question but she did it anyhow.

Caelian wrinkled her nose. “Be careful there!” She didn’t want to see anyone get hurt, and she really didn’t want to see this other page get hurt, someone who was giving her so much information…One or two more times? Well…she could do that, she could.” Taking a deep breath, the page thrusted the trashcan lid as hard as she could at the youma. “I won’t let you hurt anyone. Ever. Again.”

She was very pleased to see that it was…cracking. That had to be a good thing. It would be dust soon, if it was anything like the other youmas she had fought. “Hang in there, won’t you? We’ve won this fight, I know we have.”

Shalott watched as the thing all but crumbled before them and she gave it a retalitory kick to help it along. After that it was only a matter fo time before it was dust in a phantom wind. She felt better once that was done and moved to lean against the wall. Her arm was swollen where it snapped but she didn't feel anything broken, just bruised. She breathed out with a long sigh. "It's gone we're ok." She was favoring her arm but that hardly mattered now. She'd ice it, Camelot would kiss it, and they'd call it a night. No big deal.

"You did alright for being new." Not that she was much beyond new herself - only a few months. But sometimes putting yourself in harm's way was the only way to turn the battle. She shrugged. "I'm Shalott, of Earth."

The white haired page let out a heavy sigh, wiping her brow and throwing the trashcan lid to the ground, turning to Shalott and holding out a hand. “Caelian, of Venus…thank you for your help. I couldn’t have done that alone, I’m sure.” She gave a little laugh, then sighed heavily. “This whole…knight business is still completely crazy, I think. But…But it’s worth it, To keep other people safe from monsters like those? It really is worth it. I hope we can meet again, Shalott, and I hope your hand gets better soon! That sounded like it really hurt…”

She shuddered at the thought of a monster like that getting anywhere near her daughter…it was worth it to be a page just to keep her safe from terrors like that. It was completely worth it.

In that respect Kyndall could relate though she didn't know it. She's spare Harmony any pain in the world if she could and worked hard to do so. Mother had special instinct to protect and nurture. Certainly Kyndall's were well developed and tended to get her into trouble when she cared for the wrong people. She winced to think of Benitoite. It still hurt her heart.

"It'll be fine. Camelot patches me up usually." Or Tony, whatever. "Take care of yourself Caelian. If you need me come find me. I'm usually by the library or Crystal."

Which wasn't too far away from them now. "We have a duty to perform." She'd gotten involved in this war because of her daughter's kidnapping into space and she understood well what it mean to want to take on this responsibility. "It's hard. You'll want to quit sometimes, but it's worth it."

Caelian nodded then gave a sigh. “Well, I’ll do my best to keep at it, then. I’ll come find you someday again if I ever need help.” She smiled then stretched, wincing as her back cracked. “Take care of yourself, and if you see Camelot, tell him that I said hello, he was a big help to me the first time I was out here.”

A duty, something she needed to do. This…was important. This…was one of the most important things she could do, she figured. One of the things that would help change the fate of the world. Either that, or it was something that she knew would at the very least change the fate of her life.