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 Posted: Mon Jan 13, 2014 7:34 pm
Destiny City.
Sailor Auriga breathed it in through flared nostrils, her chest puffing up like a bird on a nest. Her booted feet were perched on the edge of a rooftop. The gossamer veil that hung across her mouth fluttered in the chilly air. She had forgotten this feeling -- a high that a runner might get, maybe -- and it made her bones rattle, in a good way.
It was strange how time could change things.
More than a year ago she had been here, in Destiny City, as normal as any kid could be. Better even. Maggie was upper middle class with two sets of loving parents: a high-powered lawyer for a mother with an amazing stepfather-slash-coffee shop owner and her lawyer father and his amazing nutritionist husband. She lived a charmed life of too-many-celeb-gossip-blogs, Twitter marathons, and playing at Girl Detective status.
Even after her friend Meredith was killed while the two were out shopping, that mindset and lifestyle had not really changed. Did that make her a bad person? No, no, she would assure herself, I'm just a survivor!
She still thought of Meredith often -- redheaded and bespectacled, laughing at whatever nonsense Maggie chose to spout off for the day. But Meredith was dead. She had been for a long time. It should have bothered Maggie more. Not that it didn't bother her at all. But Maggie had expected the face of her friend to emerge suddenly in dreams, or for a sudden moment to make her breath catch in her throat. But it didn't. Mostly Maggie just kept on living and feeling sorry for herself that she had gone through such a trauma.
That had been before the strange little cat with the hat, before she transformed into Sailor Auriga, Senshi of Pestilence for the first time. Being a senshi was weird, but she had basically no time to process and no one to talk to about being **magical**. It took EVERYTHING in her power just not to tweet that.
It helped that when she went home her mother and stepfather informed her that she would be moving to California with her father and his boyfriend. Maggie did her best crying and pouting, but the near-loss of her life was too much for both sets of parental figures to bear. Her life was packed up. Her father's boyfriend, Tyrell, had gotten hired as a nutritionist near San Francisco. It was supposed to be a whole new life.
And, sure, it was -- at least until the company he worked for went under and the family had to pack right back up and return to Destiny City.
Now here she was -- 14 and returning to her old school halfway through the year. They spent two nights in the city before Maggie had been permitted to go see some of her old friends. Her cellphone buzzed. Maggie checked it: a text from her mother, asking where she was. Maggie quickly texted back that she was on her way home.
Truth be told, she just wanted to feel the strange surge of power again -- to feel special, to inhabit her senshi skin. She had been awakened for a year, but she had done little more than run really, really fast for funsies. Once in California, she transformed during a parade and totally blended in. Did people even know that she really WAS powerful?
Not that she had any idea what she was doing.
Oh well! Maggie was a self-absorbed 14-year-old. She barely cared to wonder about her greater purpose. She was more concerned with whether or not Selena and Justin were really back together.
With a deep sigh, Sailor Auriga stretched her arms above her head and glanced around. She was near the edge of downtown DC and, though the idea of sailor-sprinting her happy self all the way home was appealing, she knew that her mother would think it was strange if she showed up at the house in anything other than a cab.
"Guess that makes my night over," she muttered to herself. "Goodnight, Destiny City, I love you!"
With a trilling giggle, Auriga spun on her heel and made for the edge of the building that faced the park. It had a lot more cover than the front of the building, and she would prefer to avoid a dirty alleyway.
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Posted: Mon Jan 13, 2014 7:47 pm
Pecolite was the world's laziest bad guy and he was alright with that. He'd been a lazy bad guy for so long now that it was a little difficult to remember exactly how he'd been forcefully introduced into the life of crime against his will, harder still to remember he hadn't always been a slothful minion of Chaos. Three years in the Negaverse and while his girlfriend had become at least a Captain, her cousin had climbed the ranks, left the ranks, and come back...still more powerful than him. For awhile that had actually bothered the lilac-haired officer's manly ego until he realized that, in order to become more powerful he'd have to do something worthwhile. For a guy who put all his energy towards his baseball and his girlfriend there just wasn't enough left at the end of the day for the Negaverse.
Unfortunately for him there was a thing called a quota and it was a thing he needed to fill. Skimming energy off of parties on campus was the easiest way to fill it but with the deep freezes hitting the area they'd been fewer and further between. It blew. So Pectolite was out in the January night, stalking a senshi who couldn't have been old enough to have a talk about the birds and bees yet, hoping that maybe he could just drain the kid and go home. No doubt Vicky had pulled out the ice cream and was busy looking through wedding magazines again which was a thing he had to stop as often as possible.
Propping his bat on his shoulder the collegiate lieutenant dropped down from the higher rooftop he'd been on, scant feet from Auriga. "Guess that does make your night over. Can you not do the screaming thing? It's just nicer for both of us if you don't."
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Posted: Mon Jan 13, 2014 8:02 pm
The thud behind took Auriga by surprise. Though she prided herself on being a sort of young Veronica Mars at times, that did not fine tune her supernatural sensory skills. This resulted in her letting a pathetic little shriek and an involuntary clutching of a purse that was not there.
In her mind, she was Katniss -- steely against all danger.
In reality, she was inexperienced, much smaller, and much younger than this mysterious man wielding a baseball bat.
But her personality -- both independent and infallible -- gave her a confidence that she should know better than to have in this situation.
Auriga stared at the stranger for more than was cool or collected, let alone both. She straightened slowly, adjusting the veil across her mouth and then pushing back her hood an inch to increase her line of sight. Derp had vaguely warned her about the bad guys -- Negaverse, Dark Moon something-or-other -- but there was no denying the very wrong feeling that the young sailor scout got in the pit of her stomach just looking at this guy.
She needed an escape plan.
"Sorry to disappoint, but my plans for the evening do not include slumming it," she said, all sass and smartmouth. That was what a confident femme fatale would say, right? RIGHT?
Auriga shifted her weight to one hip and tried to think of what Derp had told her about unleashing her magic. As if to add to the affect, she sighed, rolled her eyes, and began to tap her foot. "Do take care," Auriga added, turning on her heel.
In a flash, she broke out into as full of a run as she could, leaping forward and off the edge of the building.
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Posted: Mon Jan 13, 2014 8:13 pm
Ever the epitome of tact, class, and gentlemanly conduct Pectolite couldn't help but groan aloud at the way the teenybopper started talking. What was it with senshi and that highbrow way of rolling out every word in their vocabulary to make snappy statements? Was it part of the sickness that came with all that oozing goodness? Pectolite knew that the Negaverse had a penchant to leer and be menacing the way only cartoon supervillains really pulled off properly, apparently senshi had to all be high-end heroines as well.
There was a really good reason he was such a lazy bad guy and it had everything to do with the way he was supposed to conduct business, as it were. When the veiled and hooded senshi took off in a dead run he groaned again before starting to follow her, long legs consuming ground between them as he called out after her. "Come on, don't make me run! I'm not going to kill you or anything!" An oddly true statement. Killing a senshi meant that you couldn't catch them and drain them again later and this agent, for all that he was a bit of an a*****e in his civilian life, didn't enjoy killing kids who weren't even old enough to fully understand cooties weren't a real thing.
Panting slightly, because yelling and running at the same time was a challenge even for an athlete, he snarled a bit. "I just want your energy!"
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Posted: Mon Jan 13, 2014 8:23 pm
The pavement soared up at Auriga like a rising wave. She panicked in her mind, half-rolling and half-thumping on the ground below. It held her up for only an instant before she was back on her feet. It had been a long time since she had run this hard, but she had no intention of ended up like Meredith.
His voice chased after her, a sea of hollow promises. One part did stick out though: "I just want your energy!"
"EW!!!" she screamed.
Noise was her friend. Noise would attract help.
Auriga veered left, kicking a row of metal trashcans so hard that all four ricocheted off each other. It sounded like the worst symphony ever. A few heads poked out of windows, but Auriga had no time to pay attention to them. She was running for her life.
The brunette chanced a glance over her shoulder. Crap. The guy was gaining on her -- and fast. Her house was a long way away, and she didn't exactly want to march him right up to her family. No, no, Maggie needed a plan.
She tried to think back to what Derp had barely explained, but the memory was fuzzy. Plus, Auriga had never gotten the chance to test out the magical power that the hatted kitten had sworn she possessed. Not that she even wanted to... it sounded a little weird, especially when described by a cat.
Unfortunately, the universe made her decision for her. As she leaped over a park bench and made for a grassy area, the toe of her boot caught on the metal rung. She went sprawling, head over heels. Her fingers dug into the dirt as she tried to scramble to her feet.
"No, no, no," she whispered -- but he was already upon her.
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Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2014 3:32 pm
Had the pair of them been doing this little song and dance down the streets of any other city but Destiny City he would have blown off this ridiculous chase before it had even really started. Yet even in the nicer parts of the city most people were more willing to hide away from potential danger than run headlong into it. It was the only real good thing about having been warring over the city for so long; the populace was used to it. They avoided it. Pretended it didn't exist like it would go away if you just plugged your ears, closed your eyes, and hummed a little tune under your voice.
Funny, that was how Blake dealt with the whole thing himself most of the time!
Confidence rushed into Pectolite as he saw the girl veer towards the park; it was the stomping grounds for everything that went bump in the night. Youma wound through the trees looking for what foolish drifters might be trying to sleep beneath their branches, officers patrolled the edges trying to lure out senshi, and now she was running headlong into it. Running headlong, then falling.
With a burst of energy the six-foot lieutenant finally caught up to his opponent, pressing a hand down into the small of her back. "Like I said, it's nicer for both of us if you just cooperate. I really didn't want to have to be mean about it." He was pushing her down into the ground then so that it would be harder to kick him off, focusing on drawing energy out of her with that contact. Could he have taken her star seed? Yes. But come on! She was a kid! Pectolite wouldn't have hesitated had this girl been eighteen but until then? No. No way.
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Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2014 3:46 pm
If only Auriga had actually received any kind of training or perhaps had a guardian cat with a little more of a drill sergeant streak, she would have known not to run headlong toward Nega Paradise Park -- that is to say, basically all parks. Good thing she fell? Her senshi resilience took most of the physical pain out of the stumble, but there was no silencing the chill that ran up her spine when the stranger placed his hand on her back. This would have been terrifying in any situation, but the echo of icky energy coming off of him made her stomach do little flips.
"Let me go!" she shouted, flailing under his grip.
She gripped two handfuls of grass and tried to pull herself forward, but all it did was slide her maybe one foot forward. It was enough to prop her knee against the ground, giving her enough leverage to flip onto her back. She gave him a kick at what she hoped was his groin, but missed horribly, striking him more in the thigh.
Her tiny fists punched at his face, but she mostly struck air. "Let me GO!" she shouted again.
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Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2014 3:59 pm
Being down on one knee, hand in the back of a girl while she screamed and he drained her, that wasn't so bad. Having the girl flip over on him so that she could flail, forcing him to basically pin her with his superior weight and strength in order to do the job properly without getting kicked in the face? It made his stomach start to roll with a greasy feeling as one hand tried to pin her torso down, the other trying to keep her nails from going for his face. "I am going to when I'm done!" He snarled it at her, sweat starting to bead on his forehead as he exerted himself.
If he could draw enough energy out of the girl quickly enough she wouldn't be able to struggle. Then he wouldn't have to pin her, could just put a hand on her shoulder and do it that way, God how old was she?! He tried to block it out, tried not to think about it, focusing only on pulling as much energy out of her as quickly as possible. Considering how slippery the teenaged senshi had been up until now it was probably not the best thing to remove any of his concentration from making sure she didn't slide out of his grip once more.
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Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2014 4:09 pm
Her mind was spinning 1000 miles per hour. This -- what was he called? -- Negatory? Whatever Derp had said -- this bad guy -- was defeating Auriga at every turn. For all her time as a senshi, she had never been in an actual fight. She hadn't even seen a youma, as far as she knew! Her family had shipped her off to California so quickly after her awakening, and she was too afraid to transform much, aside from in the comfort of her own bedroom when her father was away. Now, on one of her first nights back, she was fighting for her life and had no idea what to do about it.
Think, think, think, she cried in her head. What would Veronica Mars do? Or Katniss? Or Tris? Or anyone one her literary female heroines? Hell, what would Beyonce do?
There was a sudden drowsy sensation, a pull. It was as if a singly thread was slowing dragging a net across her body. Her head lolled to the side, lips brushing against his bare wrist. Skin. The cat had said something about skin and... was that real? Auriga had assumed the kitten was just a little screwed up in the head, but she had no other options, no other choice.
With a drowsy slur, Auriga breathed slowly, trying to focus on this one action as the rest of her grew weak. She opened her mouth, and in a flash, clamped down as hard as she could on the Nega's wrist. Then, for good measure, she did it again -- this time it was enough to draw blood.
He had been hit with a double dose of her power. Auriga could feel it the second her teeth sunk in. This time, nothing was being drained from her. Instead, she was forcing something into his very skin.
Now what happened?
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Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2014 4:21 pm
The ball of energy floating right above the back of his hand was growing to a size decent enough that it would meet enough of his quota that it made this foolish chase worth it, made what he was doing worth it. Everything would warm up so that people would go out again at night and he could get good old civilian energy, leaving these too-young girls in their too-silly outfits for someone else. This wasn't his thing and if he had the ability to, he would have been disgusted by it. Instead there was just a vague discomfort that didn't allow for him to stop.
So focused was he on finishing the job, Pectolite didn't notice that he was in danger until it was too late. The first bite had him swearing, the second had him roaring in pain, jerking away and losing his tenuous hold on her energy. All of it flowed back into the senshi along with what felt like some of his own. Even more sweat appeared on his forehead, on the back of his neck, making the lieutenant feel like he was sweltering with a fever. Behind his eyes his sinuses throbbed and he coughed just once. What the hell was going on?!
Looking down at the girl who was having some success in getting out from under his hold now he actually added up the pieces to the puzzle. Senshi. She'd done some weirdass senshi thing to him! "Damn you!" His grip was slipping and he was starting to wheeze for the first time in his life. He had two choices: struggle through whatever she'd done to him and get her back on her stomach so it couldn't happen again (unlikely) or let her go and take his punishment (likely).
Making up his mind hands lifted off of the senshi as he staggered to his feet, backing away. "It's just not worth it." He was letting her go.
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Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2014 4:31 pm
Sailor Auriga had begun to drool after the bite, the after-effect of the energy drain. Then, suddenly, she felt like she had been Pulp-Fiction'd. A burst of energy exploded in her. She snapped back to attention as the haze lifted. The Nega was already staggering off her, but she gave him a shove on the shoulders for good measure.
This would have been the perfect time for killer one-liner, but Auriga was far more concerned with survival.
Without a moment's thought, Auriga shot to her feet, spun around, and took off at a dead sprint. She didn't stop to look over her shoulder, she didn't stop until she had been running for several miles. She ran so long that she winded her senshi-self just outside of the large wooden sign marking the suburban development where she lived.
A gasping breath shook through her. She spun in a circle, looking for him, expecting him to be here. In the morning, she would feel proud of herself. She might even contemplate bragging about it in code in her diary. But for now, Auriga was going to let herself break down crying on the side of the road.
Headlights flared up on the road. Auriga scrambled to hide behind the oversized sign, her knees trembling. Cry now, rejoice later.
It would be a bit before Auriga dared to go out alone in Destiny City.
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Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2014 4:42 pm
It took a minute for the worst of the feeling to clear out of Pectolite's body and then a few more for him to feel truly normal again. He simply sat on his a** in the dirt, then flopped up on his back to stare at the sky, knowing he wouldn't be in a whole lot of danger there. Even if a senshi did wander by it'd be hard to see him from the street or from the rooftops -- he was shielded by the bench Auriga had tripped over.
Tonight was a failure, a complete and utter failure. Pectolite wasn't the sort of guy who was happy when he failed at anything, especially when he knew he could have won. If he'd been more ruthless then it wouldn't have been anything at all to rip that squirming girl's star seed out of her back, she couldn't have bitten him at all. Idly he raised the bite up to the light, inspecting it and swearing as it dripped blood further down his arm. So it'd need bandages which meant pouring alcohol on it which meant talking to Victoria about what had happened. Son of a b***h.
Rubbing his uninjured hand over his face the lilac-haired lieutenant pushed himself to his feet and aimed towards home. He'd buy one of those bride magazine deals and take it home with him, cleaning up at the store first. His girlfriend would be so shocked and distracted she might not ask him about it until tomorrow, at least. Pectolite was the world's worst Negaverse officer but tonight he just didn't give a ********.
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