She only barely remembered to put on pants. Tallulah thought this was excusable, because her hand was on her henshin pen the instant the door closed and her mind was considerably distracted. She’d give it another day, maybe a day and a half before she reported Kat missing. How long were you supposed to wait on these things? Oh, it was stupid, really, she knew exactly where Kat was-
Except for the part where Kat wasn’t Kat anymore. That was probably what hurt the most, that the girl she’d grown up with was suddenly gone. Not even dead; dead might be preferable, because it would mean she had something to tell her parents, her aunt, and her uncle. Gone was infinitely worse. Gone meant that there was someone walking around with Kat’s face and Kat’s voice and Kat’s memories and Kat’s powers… who wasn’t Kat.
That was definitely the worst part of it, that someone had usurped her cousin. Tallulah swallowed the sob that was growing in her throat, and it formed a solid knot in her esophagus. She had made it down the block now, from the apartment to the Starbucks, and wasn’t sure where to go next. The coffee shop was closed for the night, the doors locked but the light still on while a lone barista mopped.
Tallulah really wanted some caffeine. It was a total bummer. She leaned against the brick wall of the building, trying to steady herself, and sank down into a crouch. What she really wanted to do was cry, but no – there were more important things to do.
How strange that her cousin was basically dead with a stranger in her place to clean her things out of the apartment, and the most pressing thing on her mind was that she needed to call a meeting? Surely the Jovians needed to know about this, and anyone else…?
She’d start with the Jovians, decide on a meeting place, grab whoever she found on the way over – that was a solid plan, right? It took her three solid tries to flip her senshi phone out, because her fingers were shaking so bad. When she finally got it she fumbled it, sending it skittering across the concrete. Tallulah snatched it back zealously and searched her contacts, finding the list marked JOVIANS.
She called Ganymede first. Although she didn’t manage to explain the situation in much detail, he thankfully understood what she needed: of course, they could meet on the roof of Valhalla’s building. Although Tallulah didn’t quite understand on what authority he offered it, he gave her a pair of cross-streets and she thanked him profusely.
As soon as she hung up from that call, Tallulah phoned Kallichore, who seemed to already know what was going on except that instead of being upset she was livid. A few calls later, the phone tree had been started – everyone would be there, or else. Tallulah got shakily to her feet. The Starbucks had gone dark and the block was deserted. She flipped her henshin pen into trembling fingers and powered up.
When she became Sailor Europa with all her trailing ribbons and gleaming white spandex, the urge to cry came back. She’d never gotten to patrol with Leto, and now she never would. She was running practically blind, following energy signatures as they faded on and off her mental radar. Valhalla lived a fair distance away, and she tried to cover her distress with hope that she might pick up some backup for the meeting. It didn’t even matter if they were Jovians – big news like this seemed like it was only proper to involve outside parties.
The only ones she found were Vindemiatrix and Babylon. If she’d found them separately, Europa would have likely taken Vindemiatrix and left the page, but they were together and it didn’t seem keen to only take one of them. Babylon seemed intent on going wherever it was she needed to spirit Vin off to on such short notice, so Europa wound up with both of them in tow as she covered the last couple of blocks to the roof of Valhalla’s building.
If anyone wanted to take issue with her over their being non-Jovians, they could answer to her. True, tonight was going to be the first time they’d assembled all of the known Jovian senshi and knights in one place – but it had suddenly become so much larger than that.
Ares had seen to it.
