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Metis hadn't been able to help the smile that sparked to *********> remark. No, if Metis could spot the guardian's energy so far away, undoubtedly something else would notice it as well. A smart move, really. Had anyone had such a thought before?

The sound of footsteps made her turn, blinking once at the smaller form that approached her. Egeria was a chibi senshi? She smiled at least to the blue-haired girl. "It's good to meet you then, Egeria. I'm Metis." Not that her smile lasted long. The question about the Negaverse had her hand resting on her forehead for a small moment. How many of them would leave a child in peace? Iris' answer sounded about right to her, and she certainly hoped the girl would take the warning to heart.

As the others arrived, she gave a nod of greeting to Parthanope--though his question had her frowning a good bit-- and one to Hygiea but Eunomia and Victoria got confused looks from the blind girl. They were new. Victoria especially had her staring. A boy? Another boy. Oh goodness. At least she hadn't heard questionable things about him like she had for the other boy on their team. Mentally, she made a note to meet the three scouts on hopefully better terms, once this youma business was taken care of for the evening. New faces could hardly distract her from the black aura around the area.

Irene got a warm smile from Metis when she arrived, though ********* handled introductions before she could respond. And then things took a rather big shift. "*********> Her eyes went wide to see the outline of an object jutting from the girl, and the sudden shift back to feline form. When Hygiea moved to the guardian, Metis took a stance between the younger girl holding the cat and the gathering youma. "Hygiea, can you tell how bad the injury is?" Of course, then *********> told the girl to focus, making Metis bite her lip. She had a point. Eight youma on their hands. Eight... rather human looking ones. This at least explained the amount of black waves... her stomach churned at the sight of them. One in particular, Fortuna, made her uneasy. Was it... looking at her? Goodness, why?

That laughter didn't help her.

Nor did the realization Iris was charging one of them. Her hand rose to her tiara, intent on using her attack to help give the blonde an edge, but paused. Needla was circling them, and then there was that rather large minotaur looking one... and the one with the large eye. So she waited. Who would make the next move? To Irene she said, "Try to stay close." She wasn't sure separating was such a good idea, but there were so many....

Egeria ran to *********> as Hygiea scooped her up. "Can you heal her?" Egeria looked at the cat and listened as she told Hygiea to pay attention. Only then did Egeria look at the youma that had decided to surround them.

"Whats wrong with them?" She asked any of her team the question and was talking about the weird names they all said not that she made that clear in the slightest.

She stepped closer to Hygiea and watched as the girl like youma headed towards her, chanting it's name Cherie? she thought that's what it said anyway. It had big inflatable balls and was juggling with them. She glanced at some of the other youma and stepped a little closer to Hygiea and ********* like one of those traps you see in films..."

Hygiea might have been distracted, but Kanna's eyes never wavered. She seemed impossibly calm, patient, watching with a cold detachment that was fitting for something that should have been a stupid, walking pile of dust. But something in the way she watched seemed to indicate that there was more going on under that wooden mask.

When the cat seemed to notice her, the plant youma finally moved. She was not a tree, and was not rooted to the ground after all. Her feet, or rather her vines, moved forward with a sudden lurch, and she wrenched the vines that made up her arms like two thick, multi-tailed whips. Her aim was not for the cat that had noticed her, but rather the small senshi she had been watching.

The human arm, clearly not attached to a person any more, went flying just in front of the vines, and smacked into Hygiea before the groping, strangling vines did.

Jadger was not going to be ignored, or even only partly noticed. She would settle for nothing short of her opponent's full attention. It was the only way to hunt something that was smarter than she was: and she understood that she was on the shallow end of the intelligence pool. That didn't matter to her: she had other skills at her disposal. Skills she never failed to make full use of.

Skills Eunomia was going to be quickly introduced to. The youma charged again, but this time she didn't stop. Her claws extended, razor sharp and powered by strong, evenly muscled arms, she hissed viciously, crying "Jaaagder!" as she leaped on the senshi, claws digging into Eunomia's shoulders as she pulled the senshi to the ground with her.

Chamela watched Iris and seemed to keep her grin steady almost out of spite. She hissed through her teeth, a lizard like tongue flashing out between an unseen gap before vanishing back behind the dangerous rows of teeth. How she managed not to bite her own tongue off was anyone's guess.

When Iris charged her, Chamela squealed with glee, a sharp, cutting sound that rent the already hiss and growl filled air around the stirring battle. Her eyes swung almost a full 180, each one in different directions, and she ducked down when Iris got close enough, her tail lashing out and striking forward like a scorpion.

Needla wanted Irene to look at her, running around as she was, trying to get the senshi to attack her, but her efforts were failing. She was not blessed with a particularly expansive attention span, and her eyes quickly sought another target to fill in her time for her.

Maybe a demonstration of her skill was in order... except she didn't have skills to demonstrate.

"Need need!" Needla bellowed when she spotted Metis sparing her a glance and saw that Irene was looking too. If a youma were capable of feeling joy, Needle felt it then. That saved her having to actually come up with plan B! The needle covered youma ran forward, though she was loathe to get close instead of drawing her prey to her, and she dove to the ground as she was approaching Irene. She curled into a ball and began to roll, needles spraying forward at the senshi, as well as anyone who was standing close to her. The needles had small barbs at the ends, which made them painful going in as well as out. Needla, only instigating, scrambled out of the ball and scurried back to the outer rim she had been prowling before.

Those buggy eyes were doing exactly as the blonde senshi had expected. They were able to see her coming from a mile away, allowing the youma plenty of time to dodge out of the way. And in turn, Chamela had managed to launch her own counter attack. Before the eternal senshi was able to react, she could feel the same sharp object that had attached itself to the youma's tail slicing across the bodice of her fuku. It didn't cut deep fortunately, for Iris was able to react quickly enough to prevent further damage, jumping up and over the youma in a manner of getting out of its way. Yet it did leave a very distinct red line across her left side of her white bodice.

Ignoring the slight pain to her side, the yellow suited senshi proceeded to keep moving, as to prevent herself from becoming an easy target. Her path eventually managed to lead her into seeing several of her other teammates also encountering the overwhelming force of the other youma. Since she was unable to pause for a team huddle, the captain soon enough found herself shouting what she could to help the others.

"Do NOT take these youma on one-on-one guys! They're too strong fer that! If ya don't think yer gonna be able t'fight... then get near Irene! If yer still able t'fight... try an' find th'weakest one and attack it. Metis, if yer able to... try an' buy us some time with one of these youma! Use yer magic! Parth-Vader! Watch yer back, and do NOT take on that b*tch! Find somethin' else t'take on that ya can beat up physically!"

There was a pause in her voice as she seemed to notice how she had pretty much been barking out requests and orders to her fellow teammates. Now wasn't the time to be gentle, but she then offered something a little more encouraging. "We can do this, guys! Just keep strong!"

With that, the eternal senshi called out "Iris Rainbow SLICER!" and summoned to her clenched right hand a rather bright rainbow that trailed behind her as she continued to keep herself moving, zigzagging in an effort to make herself a more difficult target. When she felt she was safely away from Chamela's potential wrath, the senshi then whipped the brightly colored rainbow towards Kanna, trying to potentially cut any of the appendages off so it would leave Hygiea alone.

It seemed that Hygiea was beginning to focus again, but it was a bit too late at this point. The child was knocked down by Kanna, taking the cat down with her. The chibi senshi was plenty of padding for the cat, so she didn't really feel much of the blow.

"Don't apologize to me, Hygiea!" the cat said from the girl's arms as the vines began to wrap about her. "Don't worry about healing me... I'm well enough... you need to save that for your teammates..." She smiled before extending her claws out again.

"The youma really won't bother me as much now that I don't give off so much energy." As any vines seemed to get close, the feline then began to scratch at them, and even on occasion began to bite at the vines, trying to tug them off of the chibi senshi.

Egeria didn't know what to do! She looked as each of her teammates got attacked in some way or another and she wanted to run and help Hygiea but the noise that Victoria made as he hit the floor made her wince. It was only then she looked to the youma heading her way.

"Bring it on b***h." She had possibly be listening to the words coming out Iris's mouth a little too much recently.

As the balls heading towards her she managed to dodge two but one hit her and knocked her down. Inflatable balls hurt a lot! She could feel her body tingling as it seemed to be stinging somewhat.

She couldn't help but try and crawl over to Victoria, she was sure she heard him cry for help and anyway that youma was powerless now, she had thrown the balls already! Egeria wince as she moved but she was heading over to the newest member of the team. She would rather take on negas then youma any day....

Chamela let out a hissed laugh of delight when she saw the blood staining the senshi's clothes. Not enough, not yet, but she would make more of it flow. That was her intention. Cover the Eternal senshi in blood, make her glisten in the moonlight with it.

It wasn't for beauty or for food. It was because she wanted to, and Chamela always did what she wanted, always got what she wanted. Always.

She gave chase after Iris and while the Eternal was attacking Kanna, Chamela launched her tail again, this time throwing the crescent shaped weapon at Iris while she was busy. Iris might want them to focus on other youma and help each other, but the youma did not seem inclined on breaking away from their targets.

Kanna did not approve of the rainbow that sliced through two of her vines, hissing and releasing a few vines from Hygiea's body because they were no longer attached. But pain did not seem to register with her, her face not reflecting even the hissing sound she had made.

Her vines began to grow back into place, and she tightened her hold on Hygiea, lifting her up off the ground and then hurling her at Iris. When it rained it poured, so now the Eternal had a flying chibi senshi and a razor sharp blade heading her way at almost the same moment, which meant Hygiea, or even *********, was in danger of being cut as well.

Kanna moved closer, vines waving, ready to grab hold of one of them again.

Jadger was not going to let go of her prey now that she had her in her claws, and she was getting her instincts out. She ripped and clawed at the poor senshi, pulling back only so she could pounce again.

Now she was playing with Eunomia, as a cat was wont to do. She pulled back and swung her tail behind her, hunched forward and watching the senshi with keen, sharp eyes. She wasn't grinning, didn't look like she was having fun, but in her bestial, instinctive way, she was.

Needla was a short distance from the fray, screeching and laughing, hissing her name and dancing. She wanted someone to come and attack her: she had already risked getting close to them and though it had worked out and she saw the pain she caused she also got very anxious about being out of control. She needed control.

But she was that Irene was ailing, and she had to take her chance. She rushed in again, screeching a long "Neeeeeeeeeeeeeeedla" as she ran, like a crazed battle cry. She had no weapons save her needles, but that was more than enough.

Her goal was to tackle the senshi directly: which would likely been akin to belly flopping onto a large porqupine.