Welcome to Gaia! ::

The signature was strange, to say the least. Babylon wasn't a spring chicken. He'd been around the block long enough times to know the feel of a senshi or a lieutenant, to pick out the difference between a dark mirror and downright corrupt - and in all his years as a knight, he'd never felt anything like this before, like a white moon senshi but wrong.

His own signature had been strange once, too, of course. He'd been in the throes of a near-death experience, Babylon recalled. If there was trouble, then he owed it to his side to investigate.

Babylon made his way towards the signatures - one strange and muted, the other squire-bright. The path took him into the park, and he thought to himself that if they were trying to attract a crowd, they'd picked the right place for it.

Finally, the pair came into view. Babylon bit the inside of his cheek. He'd met the knight a few times, but the senshi hunched over on the ground wasn't one he'd dealt close with before.

"Shangri-la," he said, raising his lantern to eye-level. "She's.... she's not alright, is she?"

Maia was in trouble.

Ganymede wasn't sure what was going on, nor was she completely aware of what the strange aura she was feeling meant, but she wasn't the type to ignore a call for help, particularly when it came from a friend. The message said to meet in the park at midnight, and she didn't give it a second thought. Of course she would be there. If Maia needed help, then Ganymede would do all she could to see that adequate help was given.

She arrived not in her Princess garb, but in her Eternal fuku, wary as she was about her own aura attracting too much attention. It was bad enough that her aura had the distinctly pure sensation of a transcended Senshi; she didn't need the vast strength of her Princess aura attracting unwanted guests to the area.

“Maia!” she said when she arrived, only a few moments behind Babylon. Valhalla was with her, but Ganymede didn't spare a thought for what it might mean to have the two Knights around one another. Surely they were both mature enough to put their differences behind them when it came to situations like this.

“What's going on?” Ganymede asked, kneeling down in front of her friend. She almost reached out for her; indeed, her hands hung there uselessly, unable to determine whether or not touching Maia was advisable.

He knew something was wrong even without being to feel the auras. It had been a few weeks now and he was doing his best to learn how to cope without being able to sense anything, but after being so used to something that seemed so natural, it was very unsettling to suddenly not be able to feel that energy.

Valhalla didn’t call out to his friend as Ganymede had, coming to a stop close by Babylon if only for the light of the lantern and proximity to an ally he’d known for a long time. Had it not been for Babylon, he didn’t know if he and Ganymede would be where they were today.

“What can we do?” he asked, the squire addressed by Babylon as Shangri-la. He felt as though he’d met him before, but couldn’t quite place when or where. Probably during a large battle or similar event where Maia was involved.

He could remember when Benitoite had pulled Maia’s starseed from her chest, and his stomach twisted uncomfortably. Surely she was going to be okay… He would do anything he could to help her. He didn’t need his magic or his eagle.

Athene had first found out about Maia's call for help from Ida and had readily agreed when his team mate and friend asked him to come along.

The message that he had found waiting on his senshi phone once he had powered up would have ensured that he came even if Ida hadn't asked however, because whilst Athene didn't know Maia as well as some of the others that he'd met - he'd found that what he had seen of the curly-haired senshi he'd liked and respected.

There was also the fact that he had an alliance of sorts with Maia, a personal one rather than a team one, and Athene did his best to keep his promises - even when he had doubts about just how useful having him along would be - after all he hadn't been of much help during the two corruptions that had happened a couple of months back and he hadn't been able to prevent some mad man from kidnapping Ida...

In fact he hadn't even been around when it had happened and Ida had for all intents and purposes just disappeared.

His doubts hadn't stopped him from actually making his way with Ida over to the park that Maia's message had specified as being the meeting place, other auras suggesting that neither of them were the first to arrive.

There was another aura amongst all the warm Order auras of varying strengths - one that felt weird - felt slightly weaker and almost dark... Almost - tainted.

"I don't like this" he said quietly, worry flitting across his face as he turned to look at Ida for a moment before moving towards where he thought he could feel all the auras coming from.

Because despite his unease at the aura and despite his doubts Athene planned to try his hardest to help out, a part of him hoping that this time his efforts - all their combined efforts would be enough.

Antares had been 'patrolling' the streets, in reality she had been doing little more than stalking the shadows observing the world around her. Mentally coming to terms with the aftermath from her captivity, the physical effects had been healed but the mental ones still shadowed her every move. She couldn't stand being touched before but now she disliked having someone come from behind her without any warning. She was more hesitant to jump right into fights but Antares also found that the focus required for a fight helped drag her out of her own thoughts. When she had returned she found that Maia was off her rocker and she had been avoiding Maia so a fight wouldn't occur, Shang would not like it and Antares didn't think she would be able to beat the redhead.

When she received the call for help the young senshi was startled but not overly surprised, Shang had been working on a way of helping his sister when the mad King decided to play evil roman emperor. No one walked away unscathed so when the call for help appeared she knew it was time to actually put some of her building anxiety and emotions on the line. The blond senshi moved quickly over the rooftops. She had a distance to travel since Antares had wandered quite far while lost in her thoughts and memories.


Even with the distance it didn't take her long to reach the park from her rooftop she had been on. Eyeing the others who had gathered, quite a few she hadn't met before the blond girl cautiously approached Maia and Shang. "Is it time?" She hunched further in her black hoodie, the 'skirt' of her fuku peeking out from under the hem of the overly large sweater. It was a trick Maia had first told her about when Antares complained about her bright a** uniform and how exposed it made her feel. Shifting from side to side she quelled the desire to pace back and forth since it would do nothing but annoy the others and even maybe even distract Maia, who looked like she was barely holding it together as it was.


~~~~

Pompeii was out practicing, she still felt her ego smart from the thrashing Maia gave her. A small flame of retaliation burned in her but even though Pompeii was older than the redheaded senshi there was no way the purple knight would be able to return the trouncing... at least not the way she was right then. It had been sheer luck that had kept Pompeii breathing and intact, not anything that she desired to repeat anytime soon. Even fighting the crazy general was better than fighting Maia when the senshi was fighting to kill.

She received the call for help and not even pausing, she grabbed her stuff and made her way to the park. The Saturn Squire wasn't surprised to see a gathering already, Maia and Shang were well liked and Pompeii realised that a large amount of order members were more then willing to help out a fellow white mooner. She kept a distance from the brother and sister but made sure Shang saw her. Pompeii hoped not to provoke Maia into another fight, their score would have to be settled later, first they had to make sure the senshi survived what ever was sending her off the deep end.

((crazy general was Painite BTW XD))

Nearby, where the small group of senshi and knights were currently congregating, Hannah leaned her back against one of the deciduous trees looking down at her pen in hand.

She was scared.

In her heart she knew that the Maia she encountered the last time wasn’t her friend. The girl who had in essence taken her in just shortly after her awakening and had taught her many things she would have otherwise been oblivious to. Both Lily and Xander had opened their home to her and yet here she was, standing so close yet so far away, trying to find the courage to utter the words to power up.

“I’m sorry,” Lord help me, I’m scared. Hannah’s grip around her pen tightened as she offered up a prayer. Even with her new henshin pen, she wasn’t entirely sure the magic she now possessed was enough to be of any use if a fight like before were to repeat itself while on Maia’s homeworld.

Calming herself, she drew in a deep breath and uttered the same words used every other time she powered up and within seconds the clothes she had been wearing were replaced by her new uniform. “Please Maia, hold on,” she pleaded.

Acrucis pushed off of the tree and approached the group, with a sad almost worried look on her face, and walked over to the familiar red head.

“Hi.” she spoke softly with a rueful smile on her face “Sorry I’m late.”

Babylon glanced at Ganymede - he couldn't remember what form her transcendence had taken, or if she'd ever said the last time they'd seen each other. "I can do it," he said, stepping forward with his free hand outstretched. He looked uncertainly up at Shangri-la as he knelt by the senshi - Maia didn't seem to want the help, but she was clearly in a bad way. If there was ever a time to do this, it was now, right...?

He set his hand on Maia's shoulder. "Sorry for being all up in your bubble," he said, fingers twitching as energy moved through them. "Is that helping?" He didn't expect an answer - not with so much going on. The battlefield medic's job was to fade into the background, get things done, and not get in the way - wasn't it?

He took a knee, nodding along with Shangri-la's explanation. Chaos corruption on a senshi homeworld generally sounded pretty bad - he'd seen what kind of explosive results attempting to corrupt Avalon's wonder had resulted in, after all. But those who had gathered here seemed like they were to be along for the ride - so he could only hope that Shangri-la had the right idea, and this was even a winnable fight.

Anyway, okay, cool, they were in space.

Babylon had lost his hold on Maia at some point in transit, which was probably for the better since she appeared to suffer some kind of psychotic break as soon as they touched down on her planet.

He pushed himself to his feet, head spinning a little after the energy donation - Remember to drink lots of fluids and avoid strenuous activity for the rest of the day, Babylon thought, to no avail.

"That looks bad," he said, re: the tree, turning towards the nearest familiar face - Ganymede. "Am I right in thinking that that looks bad?"

If Babylon had not stopped to wisecrack, he would have probably have noticed the spinning razor blade music notes of doom headed towards the group. Unfortunately, old habits died really hard.