Welcome to Gaia! ::

Captain Wolframite arrived on the scene to the smell of summer heat and chlorine. It that wasn't overwhelming enough, the strong pulses of senshi energy mingled with the more comforting waves of Negaverse auras clashed about him in many directions. What the hell did he just walk into? He had heard the distress signal and, while tired, was not someone who ignored a distress call. For all those officers who had rescued him, he refused to let any Negaverse officer not get the assistance they needed and risk death. They were small in number which was all the more reason for them to stick together and offer every amount of assistance possible.

This call, upon arriving, was in serious need of help. Like most battles, popping in left you disorented on where to go and who to target. A general and corrupted senshi were after one senshi, looking ready to kill, while a few other Negaversers were fighting their own senshi. One had to wonder how small fights exploded to battles like this, especially in BROAD DAYLIGHT!!! They had to be fast and quick with this or else the cops would come, and while he wouldn't mind seeing a few senshi get torn up in gunfire, he did not have the same feelings on his own officers.

Turning, he tried to pick out a senshi that wasn't otherwise occupied and saw a senshi with one rather small outfit. Well, at least it wasn't cleavage and an exposed belly, and this one wasn't wearing a skirt that could flip up, but the tiny shorts and exposed shoulders were still a bit much. All senshi seemed to wear far too little, and he really hated fighting some of them at times just because he had to get close to those uniforms. At least the Negaverse had some decency with their uniforms - though there were still a few he would like to alter.


Summoning his own weapon, he went after the red and white senshi, knowing that he wouldn't have time to ask everyone on his side for a briefing on what was going on. It was simple. When you were called to help, you came and helped. Just appear and destroy. Heels clacking, he threw his weapon at sailor Ganymede, keeping the cowardly senshi from running off.

People were calling her name, and it took Callisto concentrated effort not to stop and turn around to tell them off. Don't run off on her own? Well when the other option was death, what was she meant to do? Whatever that bad feeling was, it'd been enough to make a really powerful senshi say that they were sitting ducks. She really just wanted to go home and curl up with Shep, but he was working and he wouldn't be home for such a long time. More like she'd just put herself in a place that was enclosed and lonely.

She knew this area, though. She'd been here before, not recently but within the last year, and she knew hiding places if she could only get to them. Except senshi weren't welcome in most shops, were they? So that knocked the closest ones right out. She blew right past a man with fuzzy shoulders and a headset, not even bothering to slow down. Every girl for herself? Not really, just, terror and uncertainty. Whatever that person was, it wasn't a senshi and so she couldn't trust it. Right? Right!

Oh god she was going to die.

Then she had one more thought, and that brought her to a stop. Where was Tomlin? And Darr--Hesperis? Her boots made a sandpaper-like noise as she skidded on the concrete to look behind her for the orange cat. She was surprised to see Hesperis giving chase, as well as the blonde senshi; they were calling after her? Why? Okay, Hesperis was obvious, and she felt guilt overcome her fear at leaving her friend behind. Darryl would never do that to her, so why had Callisto abandoned her?

And where was that bad feeling coming from now? She'd been leaving it behind but now it was so close she was starting to feel nauseous…

"It's not okay," she yelled back at Gany… ganysomething, she couldn't remember his whole name. Her position, though, left her in a perfect place to warn the blonde senshi about the threat she saw. "Look behind you, Gany!" Where was Tomlin? She didn't see her cat anywhere, and there was no way she was going to let him get hurt. Not when she'd only just found him again!

Normally, Hesperis would have been more than happy to stand her ground, perhaps even to take Ganymede's place and fight the black-clad negaverse agent, but today was different. The stakes were completely different.

Thankfully, Darryl had always done better in gym than Erika. She finally managed to catch up. "Callisto !" She held out her hand for her friend to take.

"I know an hiding place !" At least, she hoped it would work. As long as they stayed on ground level, they were too easy to find.

Then she realized something. "Where did the cat go ?!" <********. All of it.

Watching Painite and Fluorite go right for the eternal senshi, hell bent on killing, Benitoite stepped back, heels clicking lightly on the ground. He was trying to keep as quite as possible and avoid things. He was not into being attacked by an eternal senshi, at least not for a good while yet. Somehow it seemed he wasn't going to wind up so lucky with the insanity this had dissolved in to, and very quickly at that.

Holding his paintbrush, as pathetic and little as he felt right now, was some sort of comfort. Slate eyes darted about while he kept his eyes on the eternal his two officers seemed intent upon killing. He'd never seen something like this, a large battle or people out to kill each other. It just was...a shock to see Fluorite so enraged. This senshi must have done something to her, something really bad.

Backing away from the two he was lucky to avoid that other eternal, the one in brown and blues, attack but something else had gained his attention. A certain senshi in red, blue and white. One who had already tinkered with his mind once. He had been on the receiving end of several nightmares since that encounter and seeing that particular senshi set him off. He was determined to have a second go at her. "General, Captain, I hate to leave your sides but I believe I would like a second bite at the apple, sort to speak." His brush pointed at Sailor Kallichore. "I have something of a score to settle and will take my leave of you both now." He'd have turned around to take off after the senshi only he found himself being...hugged, with his arms at his side trapped.

Not only was he being hugged but when he wiggled to turn around he was looking at a girl with the ears of a cat. What on Earth? Wait..never mind. Talking cats and magical people, this shouldn't surprise him. "Only a little." He stated, rather dryly. He wasn't pleased with his wishes to go after that super senshi being derailed. He'd get back to that, as soon as he got free. Wiggling he lifted one leg and tried to use a heel to step on her foot.

"You know, it's not very proper to just hug someone without permission, invasion of space and all."

Europa skidded suddenly to a halt, twisting into some sort of strange limbo move to avoid the sword she suddenly found herself confronted with. It was a very large sword, and as the eternal senshi scrambled backward, her line of sight traced up the weapon's shaft and across the scarred face of the general who held it. She didn't recognize him, but she certainly recognized the red-headed senshi standing beside him.

"Lyra," she gasped softly. Even with the change of color palette, the scout's identity was unmistakable. Although not close friends, Europa had come in contact with Lyra enough times as they were coming up through the ranks that her betrayal stung.

"What did you do to her?" she demanded, turning her attention back to the general. Having pulled herself backwards to a safe distance, Europa took up a ready stance. Lyra's corrupted aura stank like ozone and burning rubber and wrong on her sixth sense, even worse up close than it had been from several hundred yards away. How dare the Negaverse twist a pure soul like that.

Europa gritted her teeth and raised her right hand, ready to push an attack at them. "So help me god, I am so going to drown you," she declared.

Ganymede sputtered, and broke out into a cold sweat, and looked around for any sign of help. Then he felt pathetic -- which wasn't anything new, really; he felt like that all the time, though he thought he'd been getting better recently -- and curled his fingers against his palms and tried to adopt a defiant expression, because as uncomfortable as this situation was, he'd rather not be known as the senshi who couldn't handle things on his own. He'd had enough of that already. It was time to earn the new outfit he'd already gotten.

"You're a morbid one," he commented, breaking eye contact for a moment or two to scan the area for anything he could use as a weapon. He hated relying on his magic -- absolutely hated it -- partly because he'd never believed in magic and didn't know how to cope with suddenly having it, and partly because he thought it was pretty useless. Distractions could only work for so long, and these people didn't need to run to catch up with him.

"I wasn't running away so much as trying to protect someone, since you people seem to have a thing against kids-" he rambled, but he didn't get to finish. He could see the chain being swung around and around out of the corner of his eye, like some kind of murderous lasso, and then it was thrown right at him, and Ganymede had a split second to decide what to do about it.

He ducked, crouching low on his legs, and heard it whistling through the air right above his head, slicing right through his miniature top hat and skewering it off.

Wincing as he imagined what it would have been like that have that go through his stomach instead, Ganymede dived to the side and sprang quickly back to his feet, taking a few brave steps closer -- brave or stupid? He didn't really know. But he thought, taking note of the eye-patch, if he could just catch him on his blind side somehow...

"Look, whatever it is that's got you so full of hate and out for blood and guts doesn't have anything to do with me," he tried, lifting his hands in what he hoped was a nonthreatening manner. He happened to like his intestines just fine where they were, thank you very much.

Ganymede didn't fool himself into believing that he could talk Wolframite out of anything, not when he was making threats like that, but until he knew that Callisto had reached safety, and until he had a plan of action, he wasn't going to give him the chance to just mow right through him and move on to one of the others. If talking wasted time and gave the others the chance to run or deal with their own attackers, then talking was what he was going to do.

The ginger cat had badly underestimated how much of his own energy he had in reserve for running. Perhaps awakening Callisto and powering up Ganymede had drained him, or maybe he was already too far gone from walking state to state in midsummer heat. Tomlin’s muscles shook as he bounded after his senshi, falling behind despite the advantage of his four legs. Why hadn’t he just shut up and let her pet him? he hissed to himself. Just sat down with her and rested, even for a little bit? The others could have handled the youma – if only he’d known they were there! – he could have waited. If he’d found her once, he could have found her again. He was so tired.

It was hard to keep them in sight, as they headed deeper into the city, passing shops and occasional startled pedestrians that the cat would have been happy to see not so much as an hour ago, signs that he was nearly home. Now they were obstacles between him and his senshi, but provided no shield against the dark energy that was now closer, on his own level. They’d come down from on high.

Why so many? And they were still coming.

Tomlin was a veteran of cat fights. It was a necessity when negotiating the complex back streets and hidden feral colonies of the city. But unless your opponent was rabid, you knew you were probably getting away with no more than a torn ear or a bit of a limp, and that was only if you didn’t have the sense to back down when you had the chance. Even the toughest alley cats gave plenty of chances. Cats fight to run away. The enemy wasn't supposed to chase you, heading out of their territory should have been enough. They especially weren’t supposed to chase a little kittenish girl. That was just cruel, senseless. A very human thing.

He skittered to a stop when he heard Europa’s angry voice behind him, ears flattened as he recognised the danger she was in, and Kallichore nearby. Recognised Kallichore. When he turned back, Callisto was gone, and Ganymede fast disappearing ahead of him. He didn’t know which way to jump - wanted to help them all. His guardian instincts were screaming at him, but he felt like he’d barely scraped by on theory – putting his knowledge in practice, he was failing. Another energy signature blazed somewhere behind Europa, further confusing his decision. That was... Mauvian? Another cat! He shook his head, trying desperately to focus on the best course of action.

Callisto. All these other senshi didn’t need him the way Callisto needed him. Trusting the Eternal sailor to take care of herself and her group, he took off again after the others.

He only caught up because they’d stopped, another enemy blocking his path to them. Tomlin couldn’t see much from the back to tell what the enemy was wielding, but Ganymede was trying to talk him down, Callisto and the page standing back behind him. All of them safe, though Tomlin could see pieces of red and white hat feathers on the ground. They hadn’t seen him yet.

He kept running. If talking worked by the time he got close, he could go wide and be back at Callisto’s feet in no time. But if the Negaverser attacked again, he was getting a ballistic kitty to the back of the knee.

((Sorry for taking so long.))

Callisto slapped her hand into Hesperis's and clung. Fighting a monster was very different than the chaos she could hear not too far away. There was shouting, at least there were no screams, but Hesperis had called the reason she'd finally stopped: Tomlin. "I don't know where Tomlin is but I need him," she said, desperately. "Da--Hesperis, he's my cat, I know he's mine! We can't leave him, don't make me leave him--" She looked behind them again, towards Gany and the black-clad boy with the knives. Shep was going to be so angry with her, she hadn't even gotten permission to be a sailor-suited soldier of justice. It didn't work out for the whole plan he'd set out to her. She had to, had to succeed and take care of herself and do well in school but that didn't matter right now.

Where was Tomlin, where was he?

Then she spotted her cat racing towards them, and a smile came over her face. "Tomlin! Come here, please, it's not safe--" She ran towards Ganymede and Wolframite, trailing Hesperis behind her in her bid to get her cat.