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 Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2011 2:21 pm
Alkaid had taken advantage of the brief moment of Ares' distraction, using it to slip away to the other side of the carousel and then briefly off, hiding in the darkness the rest of the rinky-dink amusement park provided.
She leaned back against a mobile hot dog stand, shutting her eyes and drawing a few deep breaths to try to collect herself. She couldn't let Ares get away but right now the parallel was getting the best of her. Alkaid had been trained to fight negaversers, not senshi, especially not acrobatic senshi with a suffocation attack.
She looked around the edge of the cart just in time to see the parallel scrambling up one of the outward poles, trying to reach the top of the carousel. Her brows drew down in confusion - what was that redheaded devil trying to do? She turned back around, looking for anything among the rabble of the half-packed park. With a wicked smile, she disappeared into farther into the park.
When she appeared again, it was at a run, with a metal pole held low at her side with both hands. As the carousel twirled back around into position, she pulled the pole back and let it fall hard across the parallel's head and shoulders. Ares' grip slipped and she fell, half onto the platform and half on the ground. Alkaid saw her chance and took it, leaping up onto the platform and pulling the bar back into position for another blow. With all her strength, she swung it down against Ares but at what seemed like the last possible moment, Ares twisted and sprang up to her feet. The metal pole collided with the floor of the carousel and rebounded, jarring Alkaid and making her drop it with a clatter where it rolled and got stuck next to a roaring lion.
She glanced back up at Ares just in time to see her turning, twirling on one foot to gather speed, and aiming the other right at Alkaid's abdomen. She didn't have time to dodge it, so all she could do was curl in on herself to try and protect vital organs. The blow landed and sent her stumbling back, finding support in the pole of a nearby carousel pony.
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Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 7:04 pm
This corrupted senshi was a much more formidable foe than Ares had expected. She thought the girl seemed passive, the type who only performed under direct orders. It had been a foolish assumption, and one that the Senshi of Smoke was paying for in blood and bruises.
The blow to the head brought a spurt of fresh blood out the carousel. Her vision swam. It was only a miracle of training that allowed her to retaliate against the Senshi of Guidance. While Alkaid stumbled backward, Ares tripped on her landing too, gripping a golden pole to remain upright. She let out a painful groan and then pulled herself upward, kicking her legs above her head and disappearing onto the roof of the carousel.
It continued to spin, making her steps uneven. She could feel herself quickly losing her balance, her steam. The number of blows she had taken to the head would plague her for a week. As she scrambled for an exit, Ares heard Alkaid flipping up onto the roof right behind her. The Senshi of Smoke snapped two lightbulbs free, and then whipped around to chuck both at Alkaid as she peeked above the edge. One hit her in the side of the head and shattered, the other dodged easily as she rolled flat onto the top.
"You'll never see them alive again!" Ares shouted, anger and pain burning in her veins. She bent to snap free another lightbulb, throwing it again. Her hands were spinning and she shouted, "Ares Smothering Blast, Power-Up!" A giant column of smoke began to form, whipping out at Alkaid.
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Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 8:14 pm
As Alkaid rolled flat across the moving carousel top, she felt the shattered pieces of glass dig deeper into her dreads - the impact itself had been useless against her helmet of hair, but the pieces were lodging deeper as she moved and the jagged edges were brushing scratches against the side of her face. It was an unwelcome distraction, especially as Ares' voice rang out amidst the crash of another bulb.
"The most dangerous enemies are the ones with nothing left to lose, Parallel," she called, just above the tinkling of the carousel music, and pulled herself to her feet. It was a rocky footing at best as the top twirled, whipping her hair and cape in a strong wind that threatened to drag her down.
Her only saving grace was that the constant movement made her a hard target, though she didn't doubt Ares' ability to compensate. As that column burst forward she knew she had precious few seconds to act before Ares adjusted, but she wasn't good at spontaneous action - she was a planner, a strategist. Yet her anger was still there, brooding beneath the surface and pouring adrenaline through her veins.
This was the senshi that had Tanzanite, the leader that had ordered the capture of Uranophane and Wolframite, and this was the person that would take what little she had left from her and throw it back in her face bruised and broken.
She could already smell the acrid stench of the smoke attack even though there were still a precious few seconds left before it surrounded her. She reacted in a flash, leaping up on top of the carousel's center platform where a single pole whipped along with a bright festival flag. She didn't pause but instead used the height to her advantage, bounding across the middle in no time at all and soaring over the edge. She aimed the soles of her heels right at that dark, proud face and reveled as she felt them connect. She watched for a brief moment as Ares flew backward with the blow but she was also falling without her legs to support her. She connected hard with the top of the carousel and rolled sideways to prevent herself from slipping off the edge of it all together.
For a moment she had lost sight of Ares entirely.
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Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 8:52 pm
Before her smoke attack could find purchase, Ares was knocked backward with stunning accuracy by the corrupted senshi she sought to destroy. The impact brought bleached white haze to her vision. For an instant, there was no thought in her head, but the steady hum of pain. It had been awhile since Ares had been struck like this, the perfect combination of aim and strength.
Her mind whirred back to reality moments before she collided painfully with the roof. Ares saw herself reflected back in a mirror. With the last ounce of clarity in her mind, the Senshi of Smoke curled herself into a ball and focused on phasing through the mirror. There was no resistance; it was like slipping into a bath.
When she came out the other side, Ares was bloodied and panting on the floor of the Blood Moon Court's green room in the safehouse. Sailor Albali was there, and without a word, she fell to her knees and began to help Ares see to her injuries. That night, the Negaverse had won -- and Ares would not soon forget the face of the corrupted senshi who did it.
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Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 10:06 pm
When Alkaid was finally stable she pulled herself up onto her knees and looked across the roof to see what had happened to the parallel. She expected to see her lying on the ground beyond the edge of the carousel's roof, so confident was she in her own attack. Instead she saw her curled into a ball not far from where she'd had struck her. She was disappointed that she hadn't managed more than knocking her down, but she pulled herself up and started to make her way carefully towards the fallen BMC leader regardless.
Before she was even halfway there, however, her target began to dissolve into the mirror she had landed on. The mirror she had basically just handed right to her. With a hiss of frustration, Alkaid burst into a run - it was dangerous on top of a spinning carousel but if Ares got away then she lost every connection she had to the hostages and every hope she had of finding them.
It didn't matter though, no matter how fast she was, Ares had a head start. She arrived at the mirror just as the last bit of cinnamon hair disappeared in the image, through what Alkaid assumed was probably another mirror she couldn't see. She let out a scream that was half growl and all rage, bringing up one heel and slamming it down into the top of the mirror. A cobweb of cracks splintered outward from the dark shoe, breaking clean through to the other side and exposing the painted metal of the roof beneath it. She stood there for a moment staring at it, with her fists curled tightly at her sides, imagining that she might see the parallel's face in one of the dozen of broken pieces any moment.
Instead, all she heard were sirens in the distance that were steadily growing closer and more clear and when she looked up from her spinning platform she could see the flash of red and blue lights through the distant tree line. Instantly, she was scrambling off the top of the carousel and making a run for it through the dark and abandoned amusement park. She didn't have the energy to teleport again, she just had to hope she could get far enough away to power down without being found. Even as she passed by candy stands and game booths, as she wound through a place that was supposed to only bring joy to the less knowledgeable creatures of earth, she felt that familiar feeling of loss settling over her.
Even if she'd won the battle, she was losing the war.
Plus she'd just earned herself seven years of bad luck.
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