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 Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2011 10:29 pm
Ganymede could barely hear Peter's shouting, too intent on his plan... which really wasn't much of a plan, when he thought about it. He was sure there were plenty more senshi out there who could have handled this a lot better than he did, but he'd never claimed to be especially talented when it came to battling youma. He did what he had to whenever it was necessary, though he had to admit he lacked a certain creativity.
Whatever. It didn't really matter, did it? Whatever got the job done.
The youma prowled around the tree, its claws ripping into the bark of the trunk as it attempted to climb. Ganymede winced as he imagined those claws ripping into him instead, but he didn't allow such disturbing imagery to distract him, and in any case the youma didn't manage to get very high before it was sliding back down. Galvanized, Ganymede grabbed onto one of the branches above the one he stood on and broke it off, taking it in hand and gripping it tightly.
He stood there for a second, taking a few deep, even breaths to prepare himself. He waited for the right moment, and when the youma was directly below him, and focused on him as if it wanted nothing more than to jump up and rip him apart, Ganymede jumped down and, in a move that was quickly growing far too familiar for his liking, brought the tree branch in his hands down onto the top of the youma's head with a loud, sickening crack.
The tree branch broke and Ganymede felt a moment of terror, but the youma looked at him with crossed eyes and a woozy growl and fell over to burst into dust, like many had done before it.
Sighing, Ganymede dropped the remainder of his tree branch and leaned back against the tree by the fence for a moment to get his breathing and his pounding heart back under control. Once he had, he pushed himself away and made his way back toward the monkey bars, glancing up at Peter as he went.
"It's alright. It's gone now," he said, not allowing himself to feel accomplished. Instead, he felt a bit uncomfortable to think of a defenseless kid having to run from something like that. "Next time I tell you we've got to get out of here, listen to me, okay?"
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Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2011 10:59 pm
Peter let out a sigh of relief when the monster seemed to disappear in a puff of dust. Wow... that had been a very special experience. One that he was hoping to not have again.
"Uh huh... hold still," he called down to Paris, holding up his phone so he could take a quick picture of him in his weird costume. Now, if it was closer to Halloween he supposed it would be okay to wear it, but... "So do you always run around dressed like that? And do these monsters appear everywhere in the world? Or is this city special? And are there other people like you? What are you, anyway?? I think I've met someone like you, but she was my age," he chattered away, climbing down from the monkey bars to go and pick up the things that had been thrown about.
"Great... these are ruined..." he mumbled, not even bothering to put his shoes back on. They had teeth marks and all that right through them. He picked up his backpack though and started shoving his books back into it.
"Let me see your arm," he requested, pulling out a crumpled but still good bandaid from the bottom of his backpack. It was a larger one so hopefully it could cover where Paris had been cut, but... who knew.
Oh... "Uh... thanks... for getting rid of it, I mean..." Because he certainly wouldn't have been able to take care of it himself. His heart was still pounding, but he wasn't going to let Paris think that he'd been scared. He was in fifth grade! He shouldn't get scared of things like that... Right?
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Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2011 1:05 pm
Ganymede figured he should have been concerned when Peter took a picture of him on his phone, but he couldn't find it in himself to worry about it just yet. He stood by the monkey bars to help Peter down, then let him collect his things from where they were scattered all around the playground.
"What am I?" he wondered, propping his hands on his hips for a moment as Peter examined his shoes, before closing his eyes to concentrate and letting the transformation fall away. Paris considered how to answer the question. Sometimes he still wasn't sure he knew the full answer himself. "It's called a senshi. There are quite a few of us. I don't know exactly how much. I've never really been able to get a head count when we've all be in one area."
There was usually far too much going on for something like that.
"I don't know if it's just Destiny City or if the youma pop up elsewhere," he admitted. "I haven't heard. All I know is we have to get rid up them. The senshi getting rid of the monsters, I mean. It's... sort of complicated. There are other people," he said, and hesitated before saying that they were 'bad.' He didn't believe they were bad at the core. "They're... not exactly the nicest. They're told things that I don't think are true about the rest of us, and sometimes they go around hurting people and setting monsters all over the place."
He wasn't really surprised that Peter had met one of the little senshi, though he hoped it had been in a situation less perilous than this one had been. Now he began to wonder how much he should tell him. He deserved an explanation after all that, and now that he was aware of the goings on in the city, Paris thought it was best for him to be prepared. He only hoped Chris wouldn't make a big deal about it if he ever found out. Chris didn't have much room to talk either way, considering he went around letting just anyone know who he was.
"Most of the people like me, you can trust, especially if they're wearing a lot of white," he decided to continue, motioning to himself as if to bring attention to his senshi outfit, which he wasn't exactly wearing now that he was no longer transformed, but he was sure Peter would understand what he meant. "But there are some of them that you want to stay away from. They wear black instead, and then there are the people responsible for the monsters. They don't wear outfits like ours, and they don't have 'Sailor' in front of their names. Like me. My name is Sailor Ganymede."
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Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2011 3:46 pm
The ten-year-old stared at Paris as he changed back into his normal clothes, and then frowned as he listened to everything he was being told about 'senshi'... or whatever the heck they were called. "So there's a lot of people like you? Good guys and bad guys and stuff like in a movie?" he asked out loud, reaching to grab onto Paris's arm and pull it towards him to inspect.
"What's the point in dressing up like that? You didn't use any special magic, did you? Or if changing outfits the only thing you can do?" he wondered, looking over Paris's arm, before pulling on his wrist to drag him over to where the water fountain was and making him stick his arm under as he pushed the button. He obviously needed it cleaned before the bandaid went on. Well, he probably needed something to disinfect it, too, but there wasn't anything on him to help with that. Peter couldn't do much when it came to fighting monsters, but he knew how to clean and dress a wound from Cub Scouts.
Peter was quiet for a few moments as he made sure the scratch was cleaned before letting Paris dry it off on his other sleeve, and then took the bandaid to help him put it on. "You know I can blackmail you with that picture," he said casually with a little shrug. "But I'm not sure how much to have you pay for it..."
Paris had broken up with his brother so there was no money coming in from there, but Paris had also just saved his life...
Peter frowned as he pulled out his phone and went through the menu, pulling up the image he'd just taken of... Sailor Ganymede...? He sighed lightly and hit the delete button, watching as the image disappeared. "Guess I forgot to save it..."
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Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2011 4:08 pm
"Er... who's bad and who's good is all relative, I guess. We're all normal people underneath, or at least I'm assuming so. But, yeah, try to just steer clear of anyone who isn't wearing white and you should be okay. The senshi have magic, but mine's not that great so I don't use it all that often. The other people have weapons, and some are really dangerous."
Paris didn't complain as Peter dragged him to the water fountain to help wash off his arm, which wasn't too bad to begin with, but it could do with a bandage. He was just glad he'd managed to avoid anything major, and that Peter hadn't gotten hurt in the process. It had been a close call. Much too close for his liking, though he supposed he should be used to the suddenness of a youma's arrival and the presence of witnesses and/or potential victims.
He frowned as Peter took out his phone, happy that a picture had at least been avoided. He didn't want Peter going around telling anyone he knew who he was, or even that he'd encountered a senshi. If he told the wrong person, it could end pretty badly.
"Listen, Peter, you can't tell anyone," he said, and then held up a hand to stall off any arguments or potential threats of blackmail. "I just saved your life, so don't try to get any money out of this. This is serious, okay? You can't go around telling people that you saw me do that. You can't tell them that I'm Ganymede, do you understand? Nobody knows, not even my dad or Chris. It has to be kept secret. The only reason I transformed in front of you is because I probably wouldn't have been able to get rid of that thing without powering up, at least not on my own."
He could have tried, but he wasn't sure how well he would have done, or how long he would have lasted. He didn't think he would have been able to outrun it.
"It'd probably be better if you didn't tell anyone about this at all, not your parents and not your friends at school. This city isn't exactly the safest place and I don't want you getting hurt," he said, kneeling down to be more on his level. He wasn't trying to treat him like a kid, he just wanted to look him in the eye and make sure he knew that this was serious. "I can give you my phone number in case you see any more of those things, but don't try taking them on on your own. You can text me, and I'll come deal with it or I can have one of the others head over if they're closer. But this isn't a game, okay? People die."
He wasn't trying to scare him, but he did want to impart the seriousness of the situation. He hadn't understood it at first, himself. Now he thought that if he had, things would have been easier for him. People needed to be informed, but most of all they needed to be safe.
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Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2011 6:02 pm
Peter raised an eyebrow when Paris started telling him everything he should and shouldn't be doing with this new discovery of super heros or senshi, or whatever they were, in the city. What was the point of knowing something so cool and keeping it all a secret? He frowned as Paris knelt down in front of him, wondering if he was going to start treating him like a kid, but was pleasantly surprised when he didn't sugar coat anything for him.
"I know it's not a game. There was a monster and it hurt you. Why would I think it's a game?" he mumbled shifting uncomfortably against the wood chips. He only had socks on and he was pretty sure some pieces of wood had lodged into the cotton. And he wasn't going to admit it, but he was kind of scared. There were monsters, after all. One had tried to attack him and had hurt Paris. Of course he was going to be scared, especially if people were dying.
"I'm not going to tell anyone," he sighed, a bit begrudgingly, even though he'd already decided that keeping the secret was much more important than telling everyone he knew. But Paris didn't have to know that. Just because he was being agreeable didn't mean he had to let him know. Because then Paris would try to get even more out of him!
A silver car drove up to park entrance at that moment and Peter looked up as he saw his mom parking and getting out, looking worried. It looked like she had hurried from wherever she had been. Her blond hair was pulled back into a ponytail and she had on a fairly normal outfit of jean shorts and a green blouse with a belt around her waist. "Sweetpea, I'm so sorry I'm late!" she said, making her way over to her baby and Paris. "Paris? What are you doing here?" She sounded surprised, and then looked like she might just cry as she pulled Paris up and into a hug. "What happened to your arm, Precious?" she fussed, trying to get a look at the bandage.
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Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2011 6:20 pm
Paris managed a smile in response to Peter's agreement. Peter wasn't really the person he'd have chosen to be the first he revealed his identity to if he'd had more of a choice in the matter, but he was at least confident that his secret was temporarily safe. He couldn't be sure what would happen once Peter had calmed down and gotten his obnoxious cockiness back, but Paris figured he could trust him for the time being and hope it didn't end up being a mistake. Putting so much faith in a ten-year-old was a bit of a risk, but then Peter had already proven himself to be a bit different than your average ten-year-old.
"Thank you, Peter," he said, just as he heard a car pull up behind them. He glanced over his shoulder to see who it was, not sure who he expected and momentarily terrified that it would be Chris for some reason -- what was he supposed to say to him? -- and so he was very much relieved when it turned out to be none other than Peter's mother.
"Momma Gallo," he greeted her, only to be pulled to his feet and into a hug. His brain went into overdrive as he tried to think of some way to explain his minor injury and the loss of Peter's shoes. "Oh, that. I... accidentally cut myself at work this morning. I misplaced an exacto knife and... yeah."
He hugged her back loosely, thinking his cut was in a bit of an awkward place for a cut from an exacto knife unless he'd been seriously careless or fooling around with it, but he doubted she'd question it. He felt guilty for lying to her, but knew that he had to.
"The bandaid I had on earlier got a little loose after dance, so Peter gave me a new one. I was just passing by when I saw him here. Um..." Now how to explain the ruined shoes? "There was a bit of a problem. I mean, there's a dog that likes to prowl around these parts. His owner doesn't chain him up very well and sometimes he gets loose. I see him a lot when I'm heading back to the store in the afternoons. He was hanging around the park a little bit ago and barking up a storm and sort of tore into Peter's shoes, but I scared him off and called animal control, and they're looking into it now, and Peter's fine, so... nothing to worry about."
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Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2011 7:07 pm
Peter rolled his eyes at his mom's fussing and moved over to take her hand and pull her away from Paris. "It's fine mom. Paris took care of everything," he insisted, trying to get her to drop the subject and get back to the car. He was surprised that Paris could think up lies like that on the spot, but he supposed being a super hero and all that, one kind of had to be spontaneous with their stories.
His mom didn't look convinced that everything was okay, but she didn't try and get more out either of them. "Did you need a ride anywhere?" she offered to Paris once she allowed her son to pull her away from the young man. "It'll be no problem at all!" she insisted.
Peter went around to pick up the rest of his things and shrugged with his mom's offer. "Paris is late for work, I think," he pointed out, wondering if that would be enough of an incentive to get Paris to get a ride with them. It was the least they could do after he'd saved his life and all.
And of course he was going to keep his secret! He'd kept his other secret from his brother, so why not this one? It wasn't like it was that difficult to not mention anything about monsters and strange outfits and whatever... Paris should have more faith in him, clearly.
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Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2011 7:16 pm
Last time he'd had Peter keep a secret, he'd been paying him off. It had been a bit easier to trust him when he knew Peter really wanted the money -- though he still couldn't see what a kid needed with so much, especially with the parents Peter had. It was different this time, trusting him to keep his word without that sort of incentive, but it didn't seem as if Peter were plotting anything, and he seemed genuinely thankful -- as he should be -- so Paris chose not to worry about it for now.
"Oh, yeah, if you don't mind, I could use a ride back to the shop," he said, nodding when Peter pointed out how late he was.
Paris looked around for his previously discarded dance bag and found it on the ground some distance away, a bit dirty and slightly mangled looking, but for the most part it was in pretty good shape considering there'd just been a monster terrorizing the park.
He wished he could go home and take a nap after all that, and he was tempted to, but he was trying not to let Mrs. Gallo see how tired he was, and he knew she must be concerned enough about him since he'd dropped out of school. He at least wanted to seem as if he'd done so to do the responsible thing -- and he had; it was just that sometimes it was difficult to keep doing the responsible thing when he got so little sleep these days.
He followed Peter and Mrs. Gallo back to the car, letting out a sigh as they climbed in to head out.
It had been one hell of an afternoon.
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