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"Errr," said Astraea, both untactfully and unhelpfully -- there were people lying around limply with their starseeds taken, some of them groaning and alive but injured. There was every chance that Tisiphone had set the bus to explode, anyway. "I'll do what I can -- Sailor Proxima, go after Tisiphone! And be careful, she's dangerous!"

Dangerous was an understatement. The General-King had picked two of the most powerful senshi in Destiny City to be his stoolie pigeons, and the only one who outclassed Tisiphone was the corrupted sailor senshi Nova. And who knew what could take out Nova?

"Just go, leave me to it!"

This was much more than Astraea had ever offered to do for anyone else. For anyone else, she would have gone for the learning curve of you deal with it and gotten out of there before Charonite got to her. Maybe her heart had grown three sizes that day. Maybe Luna was getting to her. The bus was a wreck.

Sailor Proxima took off like a shot, like a racehorse loosed from the gate. She ran pretty quickly for a girl in high-heeled boots, more quickly than she herself thought she was capable of. The jumps came as a further surprise -- she leapt with all she had in her to try and grab onto a fire escape, and found herself landing on it a few stories up, instead. This made the chasing easier.

Once on a rooftop, she found herself jumping to more rooftops to give chase. She'd lost her bearings for the moment, knowing only that she was -- somewhere downtown, and of course, on a roof. When Tisiphone stopped, Proxima wasn't prepared for it. She had trouble catching herself without tumbling forward or falling back, but then there they were, facing off like gunfighters, an Old West showdown. Up this high, the wind was snapping in their hair, in their ribbons. The sun was setting, and from here, Proxima could see for miles.

But she only needed to see a few feet ahead. "Chain of Consequence!" she called, trying it out. What came to her hands were bolas, pretty turqoise crystal ones with heart-of-gold accents. Each crystal contained a golden star, one smaller than the other two. The Three Marias, it was called. One hand ran down a golden cord to find the crystal at the base of it; the other knotted around the heart-shaped nexus at the center of the three lines. Her fingers knew the way of it as she began swinging two crystals overhead. Her wrist knew, her shoulder knew, and soon the spinning swirls of turquoise were as much an extension of her body as her own arm was. She knew how to do this; she had always known how.

Sailor Proxima took two steps to her right, one foot crossing over the other, and then uncrossed again. Sailor Tisiphone stepped to her right, too. They circled each other, took a few cautious steps inward, a bracing step back: it was a dance, alright, or it was a chess match, and every move that white made, black duplicated.

Larissa was not a chess player, nor had ever been. The term zugzwang was not one familiar to her. But she understood her position anyway, understood her disadvantage. Tisiphone had given her the option of first strike, and Proxima could scarcely have been shooting blinder than this. She didn't know Tisiphone's abilities -- she barely knew her own -- and she had no experience fighting. She'd never been a person who got into fights -- Crystal girls didn't tend to be. She was bound to fail. She could hardly envision a scenario where she didn't fail. But she didn't have any choice, either; it seemed the rest of the people from the bus could die soon without their starseeds. Any move weakened her position, including no move at all.

But there was no abandoning the game now.

Tisiphone would be expecting the strike, waiting to dodge it. She had most of the starseeds tucked into her waistband now, but there still seemed to be a few fisted in each hand. Proxima didn't know what she meant to do with those.

The bolas were a blue circle in the air overhead now, and a yellow blur of energy within the circle. She didn't aim for Tisiphone's skull, which would've been a coup indeed, or for central body mass, which all wisdom said to do. When she swung, she choked her hand up a bit, swung short and slightly sideways. She swung only for Tisiphone's hand.

Daniela was late for dinner.

Her father had already called, and she'd had to deal with his irritated, clipped tones while she tried to explain that there had been a huge line at the grocery, and aside from that, she hadn't been able to find half the things he wanted anyway. By the time she'd hung up, she was irritated and her arm hurt from the strain of the plastic grocery bags; not the best mood to be headed home in.

It wasn't that far of a walk, but she was feeling a little sulky, so she took it slower than she normally would have. In her head, she rehearsed the argument she was likely to have with her parents, could already see herself storming to her room and spending the night in irritated isolation.

Such was the life of a teenage girl.

She rounded a corner, and at first, her eyes passed over the bus, continued down the street. There'd been an accident, or something, her mind supplied, and she was already running late. Something tickled the back of her mind, though. Something said this was wrong.

So she looked again. Her eyes widened, then narrowed. It didn't look like the work of an accident. Her heart twisted, remembering the jogger; this had the look of him.

Only, it was a lot more than one person.

Her heart hammered, and she spun on her heel, eyes raking the streets for a sign of the culprit. The entire scene seemed too fresh, there were people still moaning. Someone had to be around.

She'd be damned if she let them get away.

Dropping her grocery bags, she reached into the pocket of her hooded sweatshirt, withdrew her henshin pen as she broke into a run. She had no idea where she was going, but she knew that if she could, she had to find the person responsible.

"Magellan Power, Make-Up!" Light burst from her, and if anyone had been bothering to see, they would have been dazzled for just a moment. There was no one to look, however, no one able to lift their heads after the devastation.

She leapt, the thrill of it like a punch of adrenaline, and landed on the rooftop with a few staggering steps. From her new vantage point she searched, hands bunched into fists at her sides, and saw nothing.

So she ran, leaping from rooftop to rooftop, until she spotted two figures. Her pulse scattered, seeing one pin the other, force her to the ground. Magellan didn't know who was who, or if the bad guy was on top or the bottom - all she knew was, there was a struggle, and she wanted to help.

Because one of them had to be the good guy.

Taking the final leap onto the roof with them, she tore her puffs from her hair. Not for the first time, she felt a bit ridiculous as she smacked her hands together, magic gathering with the force of each hit, and shouted, "Powder Puff!"

The air exploded with shimmering, magical powder, rolling from the source and enveloping the three figures in a heavy shroud. It didn't bother Magellan in the least, which was, perhaps, the true benefit of the magic; she dashed forward, still entirely unsure who she was fighting alongside, and threw herself at the both of them.

There was only one way to find out who was the good guy, right?

Okay, probably not. Magellan would likely never get points for thinking ahead.

Tisiphone leaped back in surprise at the entry of another sailor scout. She gritted her teeth, not liking the idea of multiple opponents again. Did that cat send backup? Ugh. They popped up like weeds. Her ears tried to hone in through the sudden onslaught of.. powder? as visibility dropped. She heard the first senshi yell out the same attack, taking a step back again to make sure she was out of range from wherever it might be aiming from.

"Fine then. I'll end this quickly. Void's Rescind." Tisiphone's hands swept before her as she spoke, a dark orb forming between the palms of her hands. She swung her arm forward and the perfectly round ball shot forward and--dissolved?

She stared for a moment in awe, watching as her attack slowly faded away as it hit the tiny particles of dust. Normally a little powder wouldn't have done much, but this powder was thick enough to blind, so it was substantial enough to take out her attack. It was almost funny, really. Tisiphone watched as the straight line of her attack had made what amounted to a pipe-lined hole in the powder, though the gap was disappearing as the powder floated in to replace it. Her attack was useless.

Tisiphone's legs were poised to jump away in case they decided to take advantage of it. Had they noticed? Could they even see? She wasn't going to take the chance. If she could lure them out of the little dust storm she could hit them in an instant, but that new senshi could just poof-white everything again. She snorted. It wasn't worth the hassle.

At least she had all the star seeds. Grumpy, she turned away and jumped over the edge of the building, shaking off the powder as she fell away from the mass of it. Black eyes cast upwards to check if they had caught her departure, then she bounded down the alley to slip away.

"Sailor Proxima," she answered, finally catching sight of this newcomer. If looks were anything to go by, this girl was no threat compared to black-clad Tisiphone with her deep, vacant eyes. And Tisiphone had had those starseeds, whereas Magellan didn't seem to have stolen any such thing from anybody -- and had in fact helped her, whether intentionally or not.

Tisiphone, on the other hand, had gotten away. With her went the starseeds and the lives of several people: Proxima had failed. She had no idea how she was going to report this to the guardian cat who'd placed her trust in her -- but it was clear that the first thing Proxima had to do was become a better fighter, and fast. Maybe Miriam could teach her -- but did Miriam know anything about fighting that didn't have to do with a rapier? She doubted it. Maybe she'd get in touch with someone in the taekwondo club.

The last time Proxima had swung her chain, it had disappeared shortly thereafter, so she kept it spinning overhead, just in case. "What's your name? Did Astraea send you?"