Welcome to Gaia! ::

She kept waving her hands wildly until she caught a reaction from the midget. That was good.
It left Van alone. That was better.
It went for her instead. That was bad.
Alessa let out a small cry as she attempted to turn and run away, but the Cardian was too fast for her. He had already caught her wrist. The girl pulled and hit his hand in fear, in a vain attempt to force him to let her go, but inevitably, her eyes his, her ears noticed the beat notably, and within a few seconds, her free hand went limp. All of a sudden, the rest of the mall seemed to vanish. Nothing else mattered. She was feeling tired and unmotivated to do anything but follow the rhythmic ticks. Why bother, after all. It wasn’t so bad. People… oh, what people? She didn’t care about anything but the ticks, and she wasn’t even so focused at all, more like in a daydreaming state. Tick tick.
Her energy was leaving her body, slowly, without resistance. The brunette never had much willpower, and she certainly didn’t show much mental strength at that moment.
It could only have been a matter of seconds before Metrognome drained all her energy, and she was at his complete mercy.

Halfway through, however, the girl’s sleepy eyes opened wide again. She had just felt a strong impact that not only made her lose her balance, but also break the hypnosis.
Before she knew what had just happened, she was on the floor, her side hurting. “Whoa WHOAAA!”

Metrognome's shoulders shook with silent laughter - which is to say all of his wooden boxy frame shook - as he pulled the energy out of the helpless girl before him. See, it was not so bad to waltz with him!

He was so preoccupied with draining his partner that he did not see the bench that was hurled in his general direction until it actually hit the girl, knocking her out of his grasp. The cardian staggered back, more from surprise since the piece of furniture had fallen short, and glared through half-circles of negative space at two young ladies who were still standing. Then he shook his finger at the one panting from exertion and standing where the bench had been a few moments before - naughty naughty! It was because of people like her that most malls bolted down all the permanent benches!

Sparing one quick glance at the one in the cape (with all her somersaulting around with that cape on, it was not terribly difficult to keep track of her), he walked towards the end of the upset bench on the floor and watched the girl who had thrown it. Was she tired enough now that she would want to dance instead of throwing things?

Ding~ Tick. Tick. Ding~ Tick. Tick. Ding~ Tick. Tick.

(Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry if I've made anyone uncomfortable for stepping out of bounds. sad I am trying to work on my battle-rp skills, but I clearly need a ton of work. Feel free to just kick me again next time, any time! But thanks for clearing that up; I've never been to an outdoor mall before. I wasn't sure if it would be like a plain old mall with no roof or if it would be like an casual outdoor area with those little loose pull out seats? So I appreciate the note! )

Cassie immediately gasped, making a note in her mind to check up on Alessa. The brunette was not far from her, anyway; just a few bodies away.

Bodies. She looked down at them, a bit terrified at the idea. It had never really occurred to her before. Everyone on her shows ended up okay in the end, always got up or was picked up or was saved, or you never ever saw them again after their two seconds of screen time. Were they..? Did the senshi..!?

The pattern of noises broke Cassie's distracted thoughts, and she looked up in surprise. The senshi was still there, had not gone with the wind like she had hoped. Weren't they supposed to do that? Mysterious entrance and ex-

Curiosity left her mind. Just about everything left her mind as her gaze locked on Metrognome, the terrible ache in her arms fading in favor of focus on his wonderful ticking.

Adrenaline rushed through her veins like heroin and Vanessa was high with the thrill of a challenge and the danger that this monster proposed. It had already caused quite the ruckus; the bodies of the man and the woman and the mall cop were a testament to that. Her desire to defeat Metrognome and save the day temporarily trumped absolutely everything else that she cared about and, for a time, Vanessa forgot that she had a little brother and a father to look after. All that mattered was that she not let the monster hurt anymore people.

She summersaulted to a stop and and jumped quickly to her feet. The action unsettled her and Vanessa, dizzy from her little gymnastics show, wobbled precariously where she stood.

Somebody shouted orders at the monster. Vanessa blinked in surprise and spun on her heal, makeshift red cape swirling about her skinny frame as she twirled, in the direction of the voice. She narrowed her eyes and raked them across the mall, but didn't waste more than a few seconds looking for the source. There was a beast to conquer, and lives to save. She would take look for its master again after she had won.

If she won. She hoped that she did.

Somehow, she'd managed to hold onto her crowbar, and the weight of it was comforting in her hands. It gave her confidence.

"Stay back," she instructed Alessa authoritatively, mindful of the injuries the other girl had undoubtedly suffered. "I'll handle this."

Of course she would.

The creature had its sights set on Cassie now. Super Van didn't stop to think, or to plan. She had her eyes glued to the back of its legs, and knew instinctively what she should do.

"Don't you dare touch her!" she roared threateningly, and brandished her crowbar like a golf club as she approached the monster from behind. Super Van took a deep breath and swung, fiercely, at the back of its knees.

Cassie jerked backwards slightly, away from the clock. Her face flushed tomato and she fell back from Metrognome, feeling her legs weaken under her and leaving her on the ground. Super Van! She felt a sense of gratitude that the hero had not fled like she expected the clock to, and struggled to smile. Nervously, while the clock ambled up, Cassie began to frantically kick herself backwards, trying to scoot away. Her arms, her legs, everything trembled and burned uncontrollably in fear and disgust.

Terror pushed any other feeling out of mind when she felt something sticky beneath her, and she rapidly lifted the aching hand that broke her fall to her eyes. It was the vanilla drink that she bought earlier. It was so normal, she wanted to just-

She didn't-

The papers never said-

She started crying. It was not a lone, single tear, or a beautiful sobbing, or a silent weeping. It was a hysterical, red faced bawling, and Cassie wanted to ask for her mom, her dad, someone to just tuck her into bed and tell her to not worry about anything, anything at all.

Metrognome advanced on the super-heroine once he had wobbled his way to his feet, ticking with intent to entrance her next. Three girls, he decided, were too many to dance with, especially since it seemed one would attack him as soon as he focused on one of the other three. The older mall patrons he had drained were so much easier, since they had all just gaped at him and his exquisite rhythm.

His legs still smarted from being crowbar'd, but the pain was gradually fading. Once he stole the caped girl's energy, he would feel much better.

Ding~ Tick. Tick. Ding~ Tick. Tick. Ding~ Tick. Tick.

Suddenly, there were extra ticks coming from somewhere else. The cardian turned to the sound of shouting and gunfire from the other mall cops who were firing on him. With so many innocent girls around? The thought never crossed his clockwork mind that he was a big enough target that the fuzz need not worry. Not even when the bullets struck him.

It might have taken a lot of whacking with that crowbar to break through his solid wooden skin, but the bullets punched through quite effectively. Metrognome felt them sticking uncomfortably in his innards, taking away the precision with which he kept rhythm. It was difficult for the boxy cardian to look back over his shoulder at them, so he decided to focus on revenge for the cheap shot to his knees, and lunged for the caped girl.

Bullets pounded into his gears, and suddenly he felt everything inside stop. His eyes turned to circles as his face stopped tilted all the way to the left. Ticking silenced, he fell short of his target on his front and kicked his legs in an ineffective attempt to get back up again. A few more slugs punched into him with oddly musical hollow sounds, further seizing up all the gears inside Metrognome.

If he ever had another chance, Metrognome planned to take up line-dancing instead - something he could dance with more than one person. But for today, his song was over. Hopefully Ishi would not be mad at him. He had tried, at least. After a few moments, the kicking and squirming stopped.

There was a scream and a rain of candy that fell from the sky above the officers. Ishi was red. All over red. His cardian was dead. Dead. Even with all the energy it had gathered, it had died. This was unacceptable.
"THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!" He pointed at the three girls. "I would have gotten away with it too! If it weren't for you meddling KIDS! and you stupid...POH-LICE!"
Sticking his tongue out at the astonished crowd, and utterly unaware of his blatant use of a catch phrase, Ishi was gone with a small BLIP'', and the cardian flashed briefly.


A card fluttered to the ground, harmless.