Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was the cursing that got her attention, initially. The echo of the f-bomb rebounded down the alley she had been searching for rats - an act of boredom, mostly. She was curious enough to abandon her hunt in pursuit of the troubled human. People watching was nearly as fun as chasing mice.

The large cat leaped up atop the garden wall and ran the length of it at an easy gait, until she met the corner post and paused. It didn't take long to figure out what was causing the human's commotion - her bet was probably on the bat goblin youma trying to eat that surly kid. Even if her activity in the Order was limited to gathering information and saving civilians, she did it mostly without complaint. At least every once in a while she got to blast one of these suckers with her laser.

Her teeth grit as she fueled her concentration and narrowed it upon the wavering creature. If she missed, she might blast that kid instead - a risk she was willing to take. She felt her front claws unsheath in the effort, gripping the fence post tightly, and then she fired - right at the back of its head.

"Yes!"

The feline lips curled into a smile at the edge, watching the creature as it stumbled. She leaped down from her perch and narrowed her eyes on the kid sprawled across the asphalt, taking her first steps toward him with the edge of her sash trailing behind her. The closer she got, though, the more she felt that familiar sense of.. potential.

Well, the night just got a little bit more interesting at least.

"So, not to alarm you with this talking thing, but we should go. Before it wakes up." Her tailed waved behind her like a giant, poufy snake but the eerie, jade eyes were focused on his own as she spoke. Then, just like that she had stepped into a graceful prowl with only a quick, "keep up", to motivate him.

Invidia didn't paused to look back at the grouchy teenager, but her steps did slow as her head turned. For a moment she considered just leaving him there with no warning if he was going to be such a royal pain in the a**, but she reminded herself that some of the Senshi with the most potential were also the ones she wanted to suffocate from time to time.

Not naming any names, ahem.

The long, fluffy tail flicked in annoyance in her only response.

"That thing would have turned to dust if it were dead. So keep up, or don't, but don't complain to me when it catches up to you alone." A part of her wanted to call him an idiot but she refrained under the assumption that it would probably only make him dig his heels in more. She just kept walking and turned her head forward, prowling carefully down the sidewalk and away from him. He would either follow her or he wouldn't, but she couldn't force anyone to listen to her if they wouldn't. Kids these days had such defiant attitudes.

There was no pleasure in her expression as she finally felt his presence fall into step behind her, only relief that she didn't have to find someone to come scrape his remains off of the ground.

"I'm sure that you can handle yourself just fine - except that you've no idea what you're up against. There's so much potential in you that's being wasted-"

Invidia sighed and stopped her hurried gait long enough to turn and look back at him. He was callous, she could see that right off the bat, but so was Nemesis. Sometimes bad attitudes were a cover up for incompetence, and sometimes the best soldiers were actually just huge assholes. It was some unfortunate luck that she always found the second sort.

She gave him a once-over before she nodded her little, furred head towards a side alley. The youma would be up and on a rampage soon, there was little time for her to get into a conversation like this with him. They needed a few minutes worth of hiding so that she could get this nonsense out of the way. Once inside the alley, hidden from the soft glow of the street lamps, she leaped atop the garbage bin tucked at the back and brought her eerily glowing eyes to meet his.

"That thing is a youma, it destroys anything in its path and wreaks havoc on the world. It is only controlled by a force we know as the Negaverse and I? I'm a guardian among the forces trying to bring this world back to peace." The large cat tilted her head at him, staring at him sideways, assessing the brawn beneath his abrasive exterior.

"You are a dormant soldier. Our enemy? They can take whomever they want and pump them full of toxic power but we can only awaken the cosmic warriors that have already come before."

But if he was anything like her volatile eternal, words alone would not be enough. Her tail flicked, and curled around her sitting form, then pulled away to reveal a pen-like wand settled where her tail had just been.

"Take this."

Invidia really hated teenagers.

For a single, brief moment she thought that she had reached through to him and might actually manage to make this as painless as possible for the both of them. Then he lost his mind, again, and began trying to back away toward the mouth of the alley without even picking up his henshin pen.

Why were they always like this?

There was a brief flare of anger in Invidia as she pushed herself back up onto all fours and opened her mouth to say something - only to hear the youma roaring in his angry stupor as he finally stirred, only blocks away. Though she did not seem ready to gloat just yet, there was a tightening of her eerie, luminescent eyes as they darted up to the rooftops. In her experience, anything with arms could climb.

"Then don't listen to me, foolish boy. You have what I'd guess is about three minutes to try and outrun that thing before it consumes your life force." When her gaze dropped to him again, there was no patience left. No attempt to politely convince him. In the most feline of movements, her front paw darted out and tapped the henshin pen off of the top of the trash bin - sending it with a clutter to the alley floor, where it came to a rolling stop near his feet.

"When you're ready to stop pretending you can fight the hoard of Metallia with your bare hands, just take this damn thing and shout: Icarus asteroid power, make up!."

A pause, and then, "Yes, it has to be exactly like that."

Invidia was a spontaneous creature and as she watched him dissolve in the typical, over-zealous transformation that marked a Senshi, she could not help the wicked smile on her lips. Perhaps if he had not been so utterly demanding and outright unappreciative, she would have tried a bit harder to be kind - but come on, those damn shorts.

She was laughing gently before he ever turned around accusingly.

"Look, kid, I don't pick it," she was still chuckling to herself as her pale, jade eyes skimmed the bottom of those little shorts. Had he been a girl, before? Unlucky if he wasn't, she guessed. "That outfit is completely on you and yours. I'm just the messenger."

Her fluffy tail flicked behind her and the angry roar sounded again - definitely on the rooftops and definitely closing in.

"You have seconds to choose: flee or fight? Either is fine, but you have to choose." The mirth in her voice had quieted and now there was the steady, purposeful guidance of the Mauvian in her demeanor. Fleeing was easier but she wanted to know his instincts, what did he want?

There was a retort for him on the tip of her tongue about how he was the <******** senshi of flight but it died in the wake of the shrieking bat and the resolve she watched settle over his young, angry shoulders. At least he could make a decision and stick with his course of action - that was an instinct that was a lot harder to teach than fist = punch.

Although, knowing fist = punch was also helpful. The maine pushed herself up onto all fours, a reaction not unlike a sports fan rising to their feet in a moment of glory, and gave a territorial growl under her breath. Her senshi, her city, get lost.

"It's dead when you dust it, don't let it get its bearings, kid."

Invidia was leaping from the dumpster lid to a stack of discarded furniture piled up next to it, ignoring the slight creak of an old crate somewhere near the bottom. It put her closer to the creature in case she needed to distract it - not that she expected that with this one. He was so much like Nemesis in her early days that it made Invidia a lot more hopeful over his discovery.

"It's a pity that you're so self centered."

Invidia leaped down from her stack of discarded and forgotten furniture gracefully and, careful to weave around a few pieces of splintered wood, made her way to stand before her newest recruit and his magnificent little shorts. She was sure that she appreciated the humor much, much more than he did but for her purposes, she hid it behind a stony face in favor of accomplishing a goal.

"If you put half of that anger into fighting something that actually mattered you could be one of the strongest warriors we've had in a very, very long time. Yet here we have the generation of children growing up too proud to help their brothers and sisters."

Invidia mocked disappointment and turned her head away from him, looking for anything that could she could pretend was important outside of him, beyond the mouth of the alley they were sheltered in. It was all brick and rubble, bland and boring. Apart from the angry and defiant Icarus, her night looked drab and listless. She'd never say it, but she really missed Nemesis.

"They just don't make you like they used to and I don't have it in me to teach another one of you punks to care about the Earth you're standing on if you can't even understand why you should care about anyone other than yourself."

Her bright eyes swung back up to him and she turned halfway away from him, one front paw paused mid-step.

"Power down and go home if that's what you want to do."

Of course, she wasn't going to tell him how to do that, either.