Welcome to Gaia! ::

The cat-earred girl nodded her head, a bell accenting the movement. "Everything in this hand is yours" she offered in a matter-of-fact tone before adding in a cute giggle. She rather quickly shoved the contents of her hand into his.

"Now, take the pen and shout out 'Boreas Power Make-up!'" There was a slight pause. "The more energy, the better! Do that for me, Noel, okay?"

There was some strange energy in this place. Something that it had never experienced before. Not many Youma ever really experienced this sort of energy. Yet, the one that had let itself in through the backdoor and managed to gobble up one delicious starseed from the baker was lucky. Lucky lucky LUCKY! It was a tricky creature. It had managed to spy that senshi in the building as she began to approach the backroom, and easily crawled up to the ceiling, literally hanging upside down like it was nothing at all. It was stealthy, yes, yes it was. It had managed to get out of the way when it began to sense this new energy.

Yes, it is time to investigate, yes yes! Carefully, a creature began to make its way towards the front of the bakery, only using the ceiling to make its path.

The cat-earred girl rocked from the balls of her feet to her heels as she waited, watching as the ash blonde young man transformed into something different and something new. ********* had an absolutely large and full smile upon her lips. The moment he was finished, she stepped forward.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Sailor Boreas, Senshi of Winter." Perhaps it was a bit unorthodox, but heck, ********* was feeling absolutely. With her one good arm, she wrapped it about the boy in a half hug. She looked up to his pale eyes with the happiest looking smile possible. "Zue is going to be so pleased! Oh, and Chronos too!" It was blatantly obvious she was beaming at the moment. She bounced around slightly on the balls of her bare feet, getting that giddy energy out, and when she had finally calmed down, she released her casual hug and bounced back about a step.

"Sorry about that... but I'm just happy to have found you. My friend has been looking for you for a while!" Zue had never officially stated that she and he were friends, but ********* seemed to think they were friends at least. "I will have to introduce you later."

Usually she would have been quite prompt to explain things, but the obvious excitement had overwhelmed the guardian cat. And now, as she was spiraling back to the real world (where there were magical talking cats, sailor senshi, and monsters called Youma), she realized rather suddenly she forgot to answer him.

"Oh, oh, oh! My bad! Let's see here... it isn't everyday that you are awakened as a Sailor Senshi. I'm not used to waking up boys though, to be honest. All of this, the feelings, the get-up, the 'tiara' on your forehead... it is all part of your responsibility as a Senshi." Ah yes, the tiara. The epitome of masculinity.

The youma slinked its way into the main room with all the pastries and licked its thin scaley lips. However, the lip-licking wasn't due to the sweet treats. No, there was fresh meat. Fresh powered starseed meat. It licked its lips once more, a bit of globby black drool leaking from its mouth, and landing on the ground with a faint plop sound.

Both of the cat's ears twitched at the small sound.

"...on your toes, Boreas..." was her only warning.

It had been spotted. Oh my, oh my! Well, there was no real use of remaining on the ceiling now. It would be near impossible to get a starseed from this ceiling, yes, yes it would be. The youma hissed in the senshi's direction and began to retreat to the edge of the ceiling towards a wall so it could scale its way back down. Even youma sometimes wished they were something a bit better, and at the moment, this youma wish it had a tongue like a chameleon or frog. That would have been convenient, yes it would have been!

"There is no need to protect me, Boreas. I have a few tricks up my sleeves!" ********* stepped around and glanced at the scaly beast for a moment. He had questions, which she replied to in a practiced calm (yet still strangely cheerful) tone.

"It is a youma... it probably attacked Irene in the backroom, though how it got there specifically, I have no idea... and it really isn't too hard to get rid of these. However, you have to listen to my every direction."

The mention of Ellie caused something vaguely strange. With her one arm that wasn't limp, she put up a single finger, signaling for him to wait "1 second." With that, the circus themed cat girl sprinted towards the entryway to the backroom. And then she shouted.

"Iris, get your butt out here! We need some assistance!"

Who was Iris? Well, that wasn't important at the moment for Boreas. Having taken care of what needed to be done, the cat girl sprinted back to Boreas' side, bells easily lightening the mood as they jingled with her movements.

"Alrighty... you need to get close to that Youma... I'd suggest avoiding the mouth, since that spit didn't look very good. When you are close enough, use your 'Boreas Blizzard Blast'... shout those words and make a throwing motion at the youma... I am certain you can take care of the rest."

Why did the senshi not attack? With all of the delay, the youma had managed to slink down from its spot upon the ceiling and was now on level ground with the other two sharing this room with it. Beady black eyes began to stare in a fashion that almost felt like it was drilling a hole through Boreas' chest. This youma had its eyes on the prize, literally.

Once more, it licked its thin scaly lips, hissing out one word. "Starseeds."

The youma may have been many things, such as ugly, resourceful, and hungry, but there was one thing it wasn't.

It wasn't exactly all that fast.

The youma didn't even seem remotely interested in leaving the vicinity. Once more its tongue flicked out hungrily as it began to stalk forward towards the senshi on all fours. The senshi turned right, and with large steps, the creature attempted to maneuver itself in a way where it could strike. Yet, it heard the attack cry when it was only a quarter of the way finished with the turn.

It might not have been the strongest attack out there, but it was perhaps the most effective coincidence out there. The moment the large patch of its side was hit with sudden cold, the beady black eyes seemed to glaze over in a sleepy fashion. A faint hissing noise escaped from its mouth, and it honestly attempted to shake off the feeling, but it suddenly felt like the world was on extra slow motion.

It seemed that her duty in this form was done. Knowing when it was time to change back, the cat simply shrunk back into her normal form, laying on the ground as if nothing amazing was going on.

Perhaps the feline would have given some sort of instruction, but instead, she didn't get to say a word if she had been planning to. Instead, her ears managed to catch the steady thump of feet running back into this room.

A blonde senshi literally bound over the counter, hand tightened up in a glowing fist, which shortly ran into a streaming rainbow. It wasn't surprising for anyone who knew Iris that she was just bolting into a fight with her infamous battle cry.

"Iris Rainbow Slicer!!"

With a well practiced swing of her arm, she threw the rainbow to wrap about the now sluggish beast's neck.

It was a pretty decent wake up call to the Youma. It jerked its head up at the sudden burning sensation about its neck, screeching rather loudly. However, it was that sudden movement that was its end. The yellow-suited senshi pulled harshly as its head jerked up, and rather cleanly, off came the head, which hit one of the display cases, then simply bounced and rolled along the ground. There wasn't any blood, for the whole wound was completely seared shut.

For a moment, there was a faint hissing sound as the black beady eyes rolled up to try and see what had done it in. It only managed to get to Sailor Boreas' face before its eyes completely rolled up. Within seconds, the whole body had turned into ash, save for a sparkling little crystal-like object amidst the pile.

"...oh, so that's why you didn't use a ribbon?"

Without any hesitation, the yellow suited senshi walked up to the the "crystal thing" as it was so elegantly labeled. She picked it up, then walked up to Boreas. Her eyes locked onto his.

"...Yer dense..."

No "hi, nice job," no explanation as to the crystal thing. No, she literally just insulted the male senshi.

"Iris!" came the closest thing to a scolding tone that ********* could muster up.

"It's th'truth, cat!" With the starseed in hand, the blonde walked past Boreas, hopped the counter and ran towards the back room to find Irene.

Sighing slightly, the cat turned to Boreas. "I apologize for her being so blunt, but I suppose you should go with her. Pick me up, then head after her, if you would. It will make explaining that much easier if you get to watch what she's about to do."

The faint sound of Iris grumbling around the corner could be heard. Apparently she didn't approve of this idea.

The moment the feline was in his arms, ********* was already leaning in against his body, cheek brushing up against the fluffy trim to his fuku. Sailor Iris did have one point. Sailor Boreas was definitely dense. However, unlike the senshi, she had no plans to give him a hard time about it.

Instead, it was onto business as usual. "You should consider yourself lucky, Boreas! Lucky that you found a cat who knows where you belong. Not all of the other guardian cats are familiar with Zue's court. I don't think all of them even knew that he was searching for the four seasons." She glanced up to Boreas' face (though all she got was a face full of chin at this angle) and said with a smile "I will introduce you to him or Chronos. I promise you this! They will be pleased to meet you at long last!"

As the boy and the cat approached, Iris glanced up from where she was kneeling. She had managed to position the body into something remotely more comfortable. Even in this position, the body seemed to be barely breathing. It almost seemed mechanical how the chest rose and fell faintly. The blonde senshi watched the body, only managing to catch bits and pieces of the conversation, so she rather plainly asked "Th'hell ya goin' on 'bout, cat?"

Iris was not going to get any answers at the moment. Instead, ********* went into tutorial mode and began to explain more to the male senshi.

"The thing which Iris got from the Youma is called a starseed. It is not a part of the Youma. In fact, that starseed belongs to Irene there. It is essentially her soul, and without it, she will eventually die." It was a cold hard fact that some senshi didn't seem to understand. Yet, somehow, ********* still managed to make it sound like it wasn't something too bad.

"The Youma are made so that they can steal starseeds. It is best if we can prevent them from gathering any. However, if we can slay the Youma quick enough, we can return the starseed back where it belongs. Before the starseed's owner dies."

Turning away from the chin she had been looking at, she gave the yellow-suited senshi a nod. "If you could, please!"

With a nod, the senshi held out her hand where the starseed was and then seemed to set it upon Irene's chest. Slowly, it seemed to sink down into her chest, past the clothing, and vanished from sight. Immediately, conditions seemed to improve. The dark-haired woman's breathing seemed to steady to something more normal and her skin seemed to regain some of the color it had lost before.

Having done her job, Iris stood herself up to her feet. Without turning to face Boreas or the cat (which honestly always rubbed the cat the wrong way), she mentioned "We should get out of 'ere now."

With the mess that the shop was in, there was no doubt that the local authorities wouldn't have a problem labeling this as a Senshi attack.

"I will have to take a rain check on that cookie cake..." the cat let out with a sigh.

A light airy giggle escaped the feline. "Oh no... I would insist on paying for it."

Iris seemed to scowl at the comment, since the real translation was "I would insist Iris would have to pay for it." Since both the feline and the other senshi seemed to be waffling a bit, she shook her head, then turned to face them both.

"...what part of now do ya not get?" With that, she snatched the cat up from Boreas' arms. With the cat somewhat scrambling to stay within the grasps of one arm, Iris less-than-gracefully gave him a firm shove in the shoulder.

"Move it!"

Amidst her awkward balancing act, the cat did manage to get her two cents out. "You don't need to be such a brute, Iris!"

Eyes were rolled as she began to lead the way towards the back entrance. You didn't leave out the front door after so much damage had occurred. You didn't leave out the front door when there had been so many witnesses to the initial evacuation of the bakery. Exiting the back way led to an alleyway, which usually was an easy escape from this sort of scene. With a hand, she signaled for Boreas to keep moving, almost inviting him to follow her.

"Iris, I want you to scan him on your phone when we are able to stop. Boreas, I want you to keep up with Iris."

Apparently ********* felt the need to micromanage at the moment.

It would seem that Iris was familiar with which routes to take to "safety." They even came across a chain-link fence, which she was somehow able to climb with one hand still supporting the cat. Most senshi would have probably jumped over the fence. Iris for some reason still preferred the hands-on method of doing things.

After hopping that fence, she ran past a garbage dumpster, then stopped.

"Ere's good, I guess." Her nose crinkled a bit, since a garbage dumpster smelled like garbage (for a lack of a better term). Figuring this guy could use a second proper "introduction," she shifted the cat from one arm to the next, then thrust out her right hand. "Yeah, Sailor Iris. Nice t'meet'cha an' all... ain't used t'there bein' too many senshi that are boys though."

Castor didn't count as a boy. He counted as a creep.

When her hand was released, she pointed a finger at him. "I was more interested in helpin' Irene out, personally... but glad I could help ya out there." Hopefully that would clear the air somewhat. Last thing she needed was some guy getting all sentimental over her saving his a**, when it wasn't quite the case at all.

As an absolutely harmless reminder, ********* let out a small cough and then uttered "Iris, your phone please."

"Oh sh*t! Right!!!" The yellow suited senshi reached behind her, and when her hand came back to the front, there was a yellow phone with a random rainbow streak running through the middle. Iris scoffed at it (as she always did when she saw it). "Yeah, I know it's kinda gay lookin'... but I didn't exactly get a choice on what it looks like."

The senshi flipped open her phone, and rather quickly with her thumb began to push through various menus.

"Alright... hold still while I take care'a this!" Holding out her phone, she began to aim it as if she was getting ready to take a picture with it.

Alas, there'd be no photo when she was done. Not like she wanted to have oodles of photographs of senshi on her phone. Half the time she just wanted to forget about all of this senshi nonsense.

Looking back and forth between the two senshi, the feline offered a rather novel idea.

"I suspect it would be in both of your best interests to change back." There was a pause as ********* eyes went to Boreas'. "Just think back to you being your normal self, and you will change back."

Iris did not like changing back into a civilian in front of others. Even other senshi. So rather than change back, she simply snorted out "You first, Boreas."