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The sudden halt of humming from various electronics, the sound of her computer suddenly switching off and powering down--then the shouts and complaints from some of her neighbors, it all added up pretty quickly to alert her that at least their floor had lost power. Likely the building. She'd let out a breath, and continued to focus on the digital voice reading aloud to her the section she had to attempt to memorize. Only real question for her was how long the battery would last now that it wasn't plugged in. Though. Getting the text had been... a surprise. Lilith had been trying to refocus focus on prepping for her next exam when she gave a start at a sudden sense and, after registering that particular sense going off, scowled and ignored it for a few moments. She'd been spending far less time out on patrols than she perhaps should have been as of late, but had a valid reason so far as she was concerned--school. Projects. Finals. The balancing act had been tipping out of her favor, so a choice was made what to focus on.

If only her focus could remain on her studying. She wasn't immune to the pressure of negative auras on her radar, dim and distant though it was. But curiosity got the better of her and she closed up the digital reader she'd been using to access a copy of a textbook. Grabbing up a folding cane, she made her way out of the apartment, locking up as she went, and it was only then as she moved through the complex that she began to realize... the power was out all over? Ok. So maybe there was a... proper reason to not be sitting around with her nose stuffed in her studying. Closing her eyes against the headache forming behind them, it wasn't terribly difficult to slip into an alley a few blocks down. Henshin up when she was sure she couldn't hear any other voices near, and access the text. She listened to the digital voice as it read aloud, and flicking to the voice text option, she sent back a simple reply: "En route."

It didn't take her especially long to get to the "downtown" area, though she did have to resort to using her phone's tracker to actually pinpoint which area they were in exactly. She could sense too many auras, and as she drew into range didn't relax too much when the copper auras of humans entered her vision. The yellow animal one--ones, technically, but she didn't realize what the further behind one actually was--wasn't especially giddy-worthy until she got close enough to see the sources all around. And then she let herself relax. Minutely. There were still various Chaos energies on her senshi radar.

"Any sign of what exactly we're dealing with?" Her voice and the clicks of her boots chimed out together as she approached, both sounds kept as soft as possible. She could pin-point Iris easily enough, but the second senshi took her a moment or two before she smiled to Psyche. Whom had *********> on her shoulder. "It's good to see you again," she greeted Psyche simply, though kept further chit-chat down for the moment. Not the time, nor the place. Though she did make a mental note to try and speak to the other senshi at some point. She knew nothing of the girl. Pushing the thoughts away, she instead turned her head slightly between Iris and *********, expecting one of them to explain whatever they knew.

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LizzyMoo

Appeal

Restless energy was going to keep her up regardless--it was just in her schedule to try and run it off before she'd collapse into bed at last. There were enough lights in the part of the city she'd usually pick to jog in to keep herself from the creep sensation. When. Y'know. There wasn't a power outage. But there hadn't been a storm, and her phone lit up with complaints on various social media apps about the outage. It wasn't difficult to realize how widespread the blackout was just from that alone. Fiona blew out a heavy breath, flicking on the flashlight app and having to opt to use that until whatever it was could be sorted out.

News apps started going on about fires when she stopped to check it. Great. The Purge? Gag. Her muscles shivered down her spine and she tried to shake the feeling. She'd been listening to too many horror and suspense movies as background noise lately while she worked. It was starting to mess with her head. Fiona picked up the pace, the light of her flashlight bobbing along the sidewalk ahead of her. She wasn't the only one to do this, she noticed, passing a few groups of people with their own cellphones out. But the groups of people were dwindling the further she went, now and then consulting the maps to make sure she was heading back in a circle towards her house. It was a long way around--she'd missed a few streets she'd meant to take as she'd had her attention to the various news feeds--but it was a route.

One that would bring her through the plaza right by the power plant, she noted with a snort, switching back to her flashlight now that she knew how many blocks she had to go. Just a few more, then she'd be in the plaza. Keep going through it, and she'd be semi sort of on the vague straight-away back to home. Not the worst run. Bonus... she might actually be tired when she got back. Wonder of wonders.

ANYONE

Feel free to stumble upon the wayward woman~ If anyone's young enough to have attended Medowview in the last two years or so, they'll potentially recognize their PE teacher.

Stupid ******** ringing in her ears. Lellouch decided right then that she absolutely hated seagulls. A pretty big thing considering she absolutely adored birds. She had lost her hostage, not that she absolutely cared honestly, and slip from her captors and the fire that had engulfed her earlier perch.

And now they were suppose to drain energy? Easy. Just pounce some unsuspecting idiot that was standing out in the streets and gawking. Sneaking up on one she drained only as long as she dared before flitting off to find her Squad Leader.

"Mica..." She greeted when she finally did find the woman. "A gift." She said, holding out the energy. "My apologies for taking so long."

As he made his way through clumps of running civilians, Haumea paused near a likely looking target and focused on pulling energy. Every little bit helped and he was truly trying to make sure that he avoided anyone who looked too young or too old. As he was pulling the collected orb away, the crystal in his ear buzzed with the sound of Persephone's voice. Taking mental note of the description he was given, he quickly sent the orb towards his squad leader before glancing around to find Leda.

It was the poofy skirt and the female Lieutenant attacking the owner of said poofy skirt that tipped him off. Grinning easily, he hurried in their direction. After all, it would be poor manners to leave Kyanite all alone when he'd been told to help her out. And he had a trick that might make things a little easier for them, anyway. Scanning the area to make sure that he wouldn't pull anyone in he didn't want, he edged a little closer to the pair before murmuring, "Plumeria Sweet Breeze!"

He could smell the soft, flower scent surrounding him. And with luck, this Leda would as well. Why bother trying to chase a senshi around if his magic would make her come to them and stick around for her beating?

* = Plumeria Sweet Breeze
Effects - Able to perform once in battle and the effects last for approximately 90 seconds. When invoked, Haumea is wreathed in a ghostly haze of plumeria scent and can draw one person (perhaps 2 if only civilians) towards him. The haze in and of itself is harmless, however those under its spell cannot help themselves in the need to move closer to the source of the scent. As such, this attack is fairly useless unless a lure is needed.

Chariklo had long since abandoned any attempt to keep her swearing purely internal. As the blackout continued and she was forced to track by dim moonlight or dark auras, the stream of inventive and biologically impossible invective had turned verbal. And very loud.

She'd lost track of Penthesilea and at the moment, decided that could only be a good thing. In her present mood, she was more likely to turn and attack the War senshi for lack of any appropriate heads to crack. With an irritable shake of her mohawked head, Chariklo kept running, completely distracted by her thoughts. And very quickly found herself running into a body who seemed to be trying to run in the opposite direction.

As she bounced off, she opened her mouth to swear even more when a trickle of moonlight showed her the person she'd slammed into. And the first word that came to mind as she gaped was, 'Shorts.'

Really little shorts. Truly, whatever magic was in charge of senshi uniforms had given her a gift this day... night. Whatever. Shorts.

Looking up, she managed to grin, sass mouth at the ready.

"Well, hell-oooooo nurse," she nearly purred. "Please tell me you're not helping the assholes causing this mess. It would make me sad to have to beat the s**t out of you."

The tumble disoriented her, almost as much as the strange, sweet scent that now permeated the air. She found herself endeavoring to move toward the scent, like a moth drawn to flame, but the lieutenant entangled with her wouldn't allow it. For a moment, she wondered if they were fighting over the crystal or fighting over the scent. Now's not the time to think about those things, Leda urged herself. I've got to get this girl off me!

But as knees found her shoulders, Leda discovered that sitting up was no longer a possibility - even after the surfeit of sit-ups she managed at the boot camp a month ago. Struggling, she grunted roughly when she felt her neck wrenched around, and an electrical cord traced about the soft flesh of her neck. Not this again... She thought desperately, looking about her surroundings for some sign of a weapon to use, much like before. Mostly she found nothing ore than stylized paving stones, all thoroughly cemented into the ground. However, one sported imperfect grout, and her fingers found is edges readily enough. As she dug into what little grout retained it, she reminded herself to stay strong through the coming moments.

With the cord pulled taut, she couldn't afford a retort. It wasn't worth the breath she clung to so desperately, so stubbornly, until her lungs burnt in equal force with the steam scalds now painting red streaks across the lieutenant's body. Finally she felt the paving stone come free in her hand, and Leda solicited all of her strength to arc the makeshift weapon across her body in a bid to strike her enemy's temple. If she could just knock her unconscious...

Then I can find out where that scent's coming from. No, wait, I've got other things to do. Why am I so worried about a stupid smell?

To her luck, her strike connected with enough force to shift the girl atop her. Rolling with the momentum, Leda managed her way out of the precarious situation, though she paused to cough out the old breath that soon threatened to poison her. Her neck ached terribly from the cord, and Leda caught hold of the offending object as a weapon she herself might use. The plug part looked dangerous enough... Though she found herself questioning if she could use it to deter the girl further. And that scent...

Well, now she had to go find its source.

Super Sailor Neso was feeling very positive! (Granted, he always was.) He was successfully avoiding what appeared to be a nasty conflict down below. In fact, now that he was in powered form, he could probably slip into a liquor store on the way home and liberate some libations in the name of the Party Gods AND even sprint home fast enough to be only horribly late, as opposed to we’re going to kill you late. It was a good thing his roommates knew him pretty well. Time was very, very relative to Bo Hanley and the senshi that lived within him.

He was, in fact, so caught up in how pleased he felt that he failed to notice the Chaos signature flying towards him, nor the sound of her running, nor the actual sight of her as she rounded the corner until -- BANG! They ricocheted off each other like two billiards balls.

Stumbling, Neso righted himself quickly, shaking his head to alleviate the jarring effect. (Or increase it? Who knew?) He found himself staring at a gray and black senshi, of the Dark Mirror flavor if his eyes served him correctly. “Cool hair. Oh hey, you’re one of those Dark Mirror kids,” he said, gesturing to her fuku. Wasn’t it fascinating how different they all looked? “I don’t mind nurse. I do try to heal the planet. Though I might prefer Captain Planet. Though if I was a Planeteer, I’m pretty sure I’d be Heart. That kid got to have a monkey companion. I could be down with that in an instant.” He snapped his fingers for emphasis.

“I’m Neso, by the by. Summer and all its glorifying brightness is my main squeeze,” he explained. It was as if he was making conversation at a party, not moments away from a fight. “What about you? Well, two part question: (1) which planeteer? (2) your name, cie vous plait?” Because friends knew each other’s names. And they didn’t fight. Win-win.

Neso beamed a smile at the girl who was, technically, his enemy. But hey -- could they all just get along? Truth be told, the Senshi of Summer had avoided more fights than he had fought simply by being very friendly with Chaos folks. It turned out that a lot of them didn’t necessarily want to be fight. (Which was something they had in common with him.) So if he rolled up with arms open and pleasantries, it could almost totally be avoided!

But there was one duty that he felt totally bound to uphold. It was one of the only times he actually felt motivated to fight -- and it wasn’t to fight. Neso was driven by the urge to protect what he loved most in the universe, throughout time. “I honestly have no idea what is going on down there,” he said, pointing at the ruckus below. “But can you help me out -- you didn’t happen to see a gorgeous, magnanimous, delicately powerful angel of a creature called Princess Chronos running around down there? About ye big, softest hair you’ll ever touch, a smile that melts glaciers, eyes you get lost in? Or maybe another Zodiac -- Virgo, Aquarius, Flora...? Because those are my people, and I sort of do what they do, have been doing that for -- I don’t know -- centuries? So...” He shrugged once, but then warmed his face back up with an even wider smile.

Carnelian was not prepared for this kind of assignment. Watching Vespa's turmoil only made everything seem that much more dire. He was tapped y General Mica to protect the people draining for the crystal but... he only knew bits and pieces as to the purpose of the whole operation. The corrupted Super was trying desperately to keep a low profile, to protect Euclase and his mother and sisters. Draining people to give energy to these crystals just... didn't seem right...

To keep up with the operation, Carnelian had been following Lieutenant Galena as best he could. "Please be careful!" he murmured when he could be close enough for her to hear. "There are plenty of civilians but there's only one of you..."

Maybe she allowed too much emotion to get the better of her when she made her charge towards Persephone, but what was Tsui if not head-strong and attacking something stupidly? At least it seemed that she wouldn't have the lieutenant attacking her, so that left only Persephone and the foreboding crystal behind her, and that was perfectly fine for the Tiger senshi.

Others may have shown reservations about attacking former allies, and there was a part of Tsui that did find herself appalled at just how easily she found herself wanting to strike against her. But she also knew that chaos corrupted and it corrupted entirely, so there was no point in holding back, because she was certain that the other senshi wouldn't...

Finally she was within range, and she wasted no time. The best part about Persephone being her opponent was that the two were very similar in height, so Tsui knew that her knee would at least reach her gut if the other senshi didn't move or deflect. She wanted to beat the ever living CHAOS right out of the girl, with her bare fists if she had to!



Canopus watched as the beam of red energy shot towards the crystal but there appeared to be no residual effect. She had no idea how Astarte's magic worked nor did she like how close she allowed herself to become to the Negaverse general, but to see the crystal standing without so much as a crack was even worse. "Uh oh..."

Which meant that Astarte was now in direct line of the Negaverse general's attack, and even with the defensive boost, she was certain that the blades would still dig itself deep in her companion's flesh. It was almost enough to stop the Dark Mirror senshi in her tracks and Astarte's shout went in one ear and right out the other. Canopus acknowledged the wisdom in her advice, but that would mean abandoning Astarte, and that was something she couldn't do.

What she did do, however, was probably the dumbest thing one could do, and she ran directly in front of Astarte, standing in between the two. "Don't hurt her!"

The Negaverse general paid little mind to her team, as she had the upmost faith in Vespa and Carnelian and the individual drainers. With the two troublemakers in front of her, it was impossible not to focus on anything but, and she was surprised when the mirror senshi threw her attack at the other. Perhaps she was trying to lure her in, but there was little time to analyze the situation. Mica was in mid-charge when Astarte cried out her attack, and in a split second, she felt... strange, as though whatever malice she may have been harboring at the moment was sucked right out of her, and she was so busy with this sensation that she didn't see the attack that was sent towards the crystal, nor how it did nothing at all.

No, her attention was solely on the senshi wrapped in the orange shield, and while she felt no anger or malice towards this one, she still held her spear at the ready and continued her approach. "An interesting attack, but maybe you should consider your aim... or perhaps someone who cannot contain their emotions and not try to take it from a stone statue."

Only one thing to do now, and that was strike her down. She didn't know what the orange light did, but if it'd take a few strikes to beat her down, then so be it. What stopped her was the Dark Mirror senshi that ran into her path, and Mica let out an annoyed groan. The last time a member of the Negaverse struck against them, they were branded traitors... she was still tending to one of them. Would she have to do the same? "Step aside. I don't have time for you..."