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Luckily or, I suppose, unluckily, Dale never was one for gaudy Halloween costumes. She hadn't dressed up as anything for the past two years, and before that it was generally something like a race-car driver or a musketeer.

This year, she didn't need a costume. She was Variscite, the clawed lieutenant of the Negaverse! Her sash could easily win any contest, really. It billowed quite nicely in the wind, like out of a movie or something. It made Variscite feel powerful, like she could pull off some powerful moves.

Well, she thought that, anyway. In reality, she was still a rookie. She moved from shadow to shadow, not in her usual confident stance. To be honest, she was frightened of fighting another senshi like the last one. She had beaten her-- but barely! She didn't even succeed at getting her star seed.

She'd have to make up for that. She did not want to see Charonite angry. If only there was some easy mark. She wasn't sure if Alba was an easy one or not, but she had to be somewhat stupid to be out this late at night, right?

"Hello, are you headed back home?" Variscite stepped out from the side of a building and let the light of a lamp-post shine down on her, "Need some company? It can be dangerous here at night, with those skirted soldiers and all..."

Too easy.

Variscite couldn't help but give her trademark smirk, but then she turned it into a smile. The girl was cute, so she might as well give her a fun time before taking her Star Seed. It was for a good cause, after all, Alba should be flattered. With her 'donation', they'd be one step closer to releasing a beautiful queen. It was just like out of a fairy tale, though Variscite hadn't read fairy tales since she was a little girl.

"I'll be happy to walk you wherever you're going, cutie," Variscite chuckled, "I'm not afraid of short-skirted femme fatales. In fact..."

Variscite sweeped in front of Alba with an open hand and a gentlemanly bow.

"I can give you a ride if you'd prefer. Jumping constantly at the sounds of the streets can't be good for a young lady! Wouldn't you rather tread your journey in comfort?"

"Yes, I do!" Variscite started to walk away before turning back to glance at Alba. "Don't go away, I'll be right back." She disappeared into the shadows with a dramatic flair. As soon as she was out of sight, she shuffled to one of her parked cars and sighed with relief.

'That looked pretty cool, Variscite,' she thought to herself. 'Have to give myself credit!' She gave herself a mental pat on the back as she got into the driver's seat and turned the key. It was difficult for her to navigate in the dark, tight area, and she let out a few choice words.

Finally, out of the twisting ways came Variscite's car of choice for that evening. It was an old hearse: shined, polished, but lacking a body.

Varisicte stepped out of the car and flashed Alba a more sinister smile this time.

"I know it's a little over the top, darling, but it will serve its purpose, don't you think?"

"So sorry you feel that way," Varisicte drawled as she walked around the back of the hearse. She opened it up with a click and looked inside.

"There should be enough room for you to sleep comfortably..." she trailed off, "Well, until I dump you out."

Variscite watched Alba take a few steps back before shaking her head.

"All right, enough playing around." From some sort of black space she pulled out ten tipped claws and started to put them on her fingers as she swiftly walked towards Alba. When one of them was completely on, she reached out for the girl's chest, not even going to bother grabbing her first.

"Alba! Psst!"

When you were running for your life, you didn't exactly look gift horses in the mouth -- nor gift whispers from the alleyway. It was more within a knee-jerk reflex that Alba turned around and darted into narrow verge between buildings and behind a rusted dumpster; and there she found a beautiful silver-furred cat with a shining star on its forehead.

"Alba, that woman is going to kill you," she said. "She's the Negaverse! You have heard of the Negaverse, haven't you, or should I just swallow rat poison right now? Alba, you're a Sailor Senshi. You have to transform or you're going to end up packed in the back of that RIDICULOUS hearse."

The cat suddenly spat out an odd-looking pen with a ptooey!, a dark green and grey pen. "Sailor Alcyone," she said. "Say 'Alcyone Power, Make-Up!' and hurry."

Alba was already out of breath when she heard her name whispered from the incoming and fairly creepy alleyway to her left. While she was skeptical for the briefest of seconds (after all, trusting an unknown has so far proven to be more than just a little bit troublesome), she concluded that anybody that had already learned her name by now should pose her no threat or danger.

She was surprised, then, when all she saw between the two tall buildings were a couple of metal trash cans brimming to their lids in foul-stenched waste, and an elegant-looking cat with a weird marking on its face. Was she going crazy? She could have sworn she heard someone call her name.

It took her a considerably long time to register that the voice she had indeed heard, and was hearing at that very moment once more, was coming from that fancy cat herself. Her words were almost a buzzing noise to Alba, who couldn't believe the situation she managed to trip into. There was a crazy lady just outside of the alley looking for her corpse to fill the hearse with, and instead of finding any help at all, she was instead listening to a cat talk to her about....well, wait.

"Hold, hold on, hold on," Alba hissed out, not wanting Variscite to hear where she was and blow her cover, "You are a cat. That talks. And you're telling me that I'm one of those terrorists they're reporting on the news?"

"I must have fallen into a ******** up nightmare in the coffee shop. This can't be real. This can't be happen-...ew! Did you just spit out a pen?"

As it turned out, the last thing Alba wanted to do was die and have her corpse be stuffed into the back of a hearse. Regardless of how credible the cat and her story was, in the end it was the only thing the student had that may or may not help her. There was only one way to find out.

She reached down and, fighting the urge to repulse, picked up the bi-product of what should have been an epic hair ball. Upon closer inspection she noticed that the pen itself was actually rather pretty, with the sort of color scheme that she generally preferred in most of her accessories and decorating.

"That's it? That's all I have to say to prevent my untimely death?" Fortunately for Astraea, Alba had no intention of actually waiting for an answer. She held the pen out in front of her, and dubiously, chanted out: "ALCYONE POWER, MAKE-UP."

A gasp escaped her as the effects of the call began to take place with no second to waste. It felt as though time stood still as a bright flash of light engulfed her entire body in a spectrum of sparkles, glitter, and prismatic phenomenon. Her body twirled and swayed alongside an explosion of ribbons that wrapped themselves around her silhouette to replace her street clothes, with something, well. Not exactly something that she would comfortably wear down the street.

She was in shock. "I...uh...what just happened to me?" Clearly, Alba wasn't expecting for the pen to actually work as the cat had said it would.