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Zone Three

Ares was less interested in the words from Hypnos than she was in the series finale of The Hills. And she gave zero ******** about The Hills. If Hypnos was here, then she needed to fight, not chase down kittens.

When Ares was her age, she was sent out into the raw wilderness to find and kill a monstrous black wolf. There they were, circling each other as the snow began to fall. She was there, standing tall -- young, nervous, and utterly determined. And then there was the wolf -- black and cruel with red eyes. The two tangoed in the beautiful dance that was combat, and then, at the last second, Ares led the beast into a narrow crevice, weaving deeper and deeper until the wolf got stuck between the high walls of rock. Then she stabbed it with the deadly end of her spear. It was the day that she became a man.

Or perhaps that was the just the introductory scene of 300.

In any case, Ares believed that all senshi should be bred to fight as early as possible, even in the womb.

A Nega fell into their path, and Ares brought her knee into his face, stumbling backwards when he responded with his own punch to her jaw. In the whirl of battle, the Senshi of Smoke could not break free to pursue Maia, Zirconia, or the chibi Hypnos. A geyser shot up inches from her, then another. And then Ares was running and rolling like an Olympic hurdler trying to avoid the scalding water.

Somehow, she ended up in Zone 3 of the battlefield -- but without any of her comrades at her side.

((MMKAY, I must AFK again until this afternoon! <333)

(Gigi is moving into Zone 5)

It hadn’t been bad at first. The landscape was thrilling, if not suitable for tourists, but the rocky outcrop the older boy had found her was sturdy and less prone to geysers than anywhere else in the dream. Gigi had enjoyed seeing all the strange costumes, trying to guess what they were meant to be. It wasn’t hard to see that these were the infamous terrorists of Destiny City, but she was surprised to find there were two distinct groups. Mentally, she classified each combatant as ‘light ballerinas’ or ‘dark tapdancers’, based solely on the costuming, though not all of them were easy to pick. And then there were the people like her in normal clothes, and cats - but not any dogs or other animals, apparently. It was a strangely specific dream.

But now the fighting was getting nastier, and people were going down. Gigi didn’t approve of that. They should have, like, a dance number, not be stomping each other’s faces.

Words drifted up from the battlefield, cutting through the general noise and standing out as if superimposed.

"-kill you mercifully-"
"-You only protect the rock!-"
"-This isn't your fight!-"
"CIVILIANS! Do not believe the lies of the Negaverse. Fight for your lives -- before they take them from you."

She couldn’t make out who was speaking, let alone who was being addressed in the chaos. Civilians? So did that make these guys soldiers? If so, they were the toy-est toy soldiers ever, in their ruffles and bows.

A hideous grating sound distracted her, close to hand – beneath? The shuddering earthquakes had finally reached her refuge, and the outcrop tore itself down the middle, scattering fragments of volcanic rock into the air. Gigi swayed for a moment on one half of the crumbling stone, then trusting to the moon-gravity that had been in effect before, threw herself out and down. She hit the rocks below far more lightly than she would have thought possible, and rolled to avoid the fighters and the geysers that were still spouting at random all around her.

As she got to her knees, a skittish cat with a white-gold ribbon landed in her lap, apparently by accident. Poor little thing didn’t deserve to be in a nightmare like this. She wrapped an arm around Cora gently, in case she took off again and got hurt. The fight continued, louder than ever.

"-Bleed, human!-"
"-not killing anyone else!-"

And now she was in the middle of it.

Flora did not want to go back to Elysion, which was something she did not like to admit. Especially when she lived with the Guardian of Elysion herself. But it was also why she was apprehensive of the place; she didn't want to disappoint Helios either. She was her friend, she was supposed to help, and not be utterly useless...

Still, that night, she found herself deciding not to patrol and sinking into dreams, appearing in Elysion. Once she did, she noticed the change in temperature; it was unbearably hot, and her first thought was that Neso would probably like this. Immediately, she chastised herself upon seeing the battleground before her; the lava, the volcano, and the earthquake... It was lucky that she didn't wear heels in her powered form anymore, she thought, trying to stabilize herself.

Watching all the chaos about, Flora was honestly quite confused. She had never thought that Elysion had a volcano, of all things, and her gaze darted about frantically, trying to find someone she knew.

(In Zone 8!)

"...h-hey!"

For all his big talk, in the moment Ever had retreated, waiting for Tony to take care of it: after all, Tony was an adult, seemed strong, talked himself up well. And besides, his attention kept being drawn away, in the way of dreams, to people in the distance: a man in a silly uniform that he recognized from a previous attack.

Besides, this was just a dream.

Tony flickered out, though, and he went more annoyed; tugging the drawstrings on his pants tighter and frowning up at Moonstone -- in her own ridiculous outfit. Why the hell did everyone in his dream dress like it was Halloween?

"You got some issues, sugar." It wasn't the fact that she'd -- well, maybe it was he fact she'd jumped Tony. But more than that, it was the crazy-a** expression of glee on her face, like she'd just accomplished something wonderful. So he set his feet, pants fixed, and very slowly turned his hand to give her a universal gesture of contempt.

He was definitely staying in Zone 3 with Sheldon. Though, maybe not for long, if she took offense.

For now, Cora was going to focus on this friendly civilian who made her feel calm. She let out calming purr while rubbing her cheek against Gigi's hand while pondering would it be wise to talk or just pretend being just normal cat.

"It's alright. I didn't expect to get treats here," she whispered. This was Elysion, the dream world. Talking cat was totally acceptable in conditions like these, right?

"I wish it would be over already," the cat continued and watched the battlefield, with a sigh. "With happier ending."

I don't want her to be sad again, Cora added silently. She really wished Hypnos would be alright.

It was a good thing Gigi was still kneeling on the ground, or Cora might have fallen as her unexpected response startled Gigi into loosening her grip. After a moment’s awkwardness, Gigi resumed stroking the cat to keep it calm, mentally readjusting herself from Serious Business back to Dream World LOL. It all seemed so real, sounds and smells and dangers, that she was forgetting that she was safe at home in bed- well, asleep at her desk, anyway, which was close enough. But the heat from the venting jets, the broken ground, the warzone. Where was her subconscious getting this? She didn’t watch these kinds of movies.

“Happier? She asked “Than what?” Did the dream-kitty already know how this battle played out?

Very carefully lifting Cora, Gigi got to her feet again, looking for a place where they could both shelter from the chaos.

Damn the Negaverse! The fissure seemed only to dissemble the senshi more-so than it did the hyper vigilant military force, though the rumbling beneath the ground became more and more pronounced. At the summit, the lava pool that Leopard so loved to take his naps and swims in started to gurgle.

The sky was growing darker.

This was ominous.

Crawling from the fissures were several small monsters, no taller than the terrified Chibi Hypnos. They started to advance on the nearest target...be they senshi, Negaverse, or civilian.

Things just got a little more complicated.