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 Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 8:07 pm
The night had been largely uneventful, has had the last few nights she went out on senshi patrol. After receiving her henshin pen and cool catchphrase, Dani had been quite eager to get out and start busting some youma butt. Not that she knew exactly what a youma was, but she had a general idea, and she figured that once she saw one, she'd recognize it. More, she'd probably figure out what to do with it. It couldn't be that hard, right? Defeating youma and all that. She was a senshi, they were youma, they were destined to fight, and she was destined to defeat them.
Simple celestial warrior logic.
Except, you know, for the part where her sphere was powder, her hair was sticking to her head with something that felt suspiciously like blood, and she couldn't catch her breath long enough to manage a sprint.
Arms coming up to fend off a blow, she braced herself, but wasn't quite strong enough. Tails - she thought they were tails, the thing had three of them, holy s**t - slashed against her, tearing her gloves, sending her flying backward with the force of the blow. She slammed into some trash cans, sending putrid smelling refuse all over the place, but found that she didn't care.
It was hard to care what you smelled like when you were pretty sure you were about to be ripped to a million pretty, lacy pieces.
Gritting her teeth against the explosion of pain upon impact, she gasped, rolling over a pile of rotted... something as the creature dived for her. She barely missed being impaled by something, but felt the rake of claws over her shoulder, impeding her movement.
She screamed, the wild, shocked sound of someone experiencing true pain for the first time. Her should burned, whether from some toxin or just the pain she didn't know, and she kicked at the beast, a sob tearing from her chest when she only managed to throw it back a couple of feet.
Her self defense classes - her exercise - the rock climbing - everything she'd ever done to condition her body, to make it stronger, better, faster - it all seemed for nothing. This was unreal. This was faster than her, had bigger teeth than her, and by god, it was going to destroy her.
Digging her fingers into the pavement, she kicked furiously at it, managing a kind of ridiculous run on all fours that she would have otherwise thought very beneath her dignity. She managed to rise, though curled in on her shoulder, and her gait was uneven when she sprinted for a lamp post. It was the only thing she could see that might provide some cover.
Behind her, the creature's footfalls pounded. They echoed in her head, impossibly loud, and terror closed her throat, made it hard to breathe.
Though her shoulder screamed with pain, she reached for the hairpieces she wore, tearing them out of place. She might have loosened a few hairs as well, but she didn't care; whirling, chest heaving as she fought to control her breathing, she shouted, "POWDER PUFF!"
Furiously slamming the puff balls together, she watched a glittery, dense powder spill out of them, expanding far beyond the reasonable means for a couple of hairpieces. Though she couldn't taste it, couldn't even tell that the powder lingered on the air, she could hear a peculiar rattling sound, heard the creature skid to a halt and slam into something.
Going a little light headed with panic, she clenched her hands into fists around the puffs, not even really able to be alarmed when they disappeared and reappeared atop her head. So she'd filled the area with powder - so the thing couldn't see her, and was coughing - so what. She wasn't going to be able to kill it like that.
Standing in the middle of the street, fuku torn, bleeding from multiple wounds, she did the only thing she thought she could.
She charged.
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Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 8:56 pm
Pegasus hadn't been expecting to rescue anyone that night, but then again, with how things had been going lately in Destiny City, she shouldn't have been surprised. It was just around the time when she would have normally turned in, hoping to get a good night's sleep before classes the next day (or at least enough that she wasn't falling asleep in her seat) when she heard the scream a little ways off, the sound of crashing and trashcans clanging along the ground making her head turn. Immediately her expression soured. And here she thought she was actually going to escape the night unharmed. The probability of that happening now was slim to none.
Hesitating only enough to mentally curse the world and everything in it, the teal-skirted senshi kicked off the cement with one ballet-shoed foot, her muscles tense as she bolted down the street towards the sound, pushing herself to move faster. If she was lucky, she might be able to save whoever had screamed.
The scene she stumbled upon, however, caused the strawberry blonde girl to pause, coughing a little as the powder filled the air, although it seemed to do no lasting damage to her. Peering around, Pegasus put up her hands defensively, hearing the youma scuffle around, trying to find something to thrash in the fog. Who had done this? It was unlike any attack she had ever seen, the thick whiteness clouding the air, making it hard to see... it couldn't have been someone from the negaverse, could it? Hearing another scuffling sound, the senshi of dreams whipped around just in time to see a shadowed form dart towards the monster, as if about to try to strike it down. Right into it's gaping mouth?!
'Dream Kinesis!'
Crossing her arms across her chest, an irredescent sphere the size of a basketball began to form, the motion of uncrossing her arms hurling it towards the youma. Even if it didn't hit directly, she hoped it would at least distract the thing long enough for whoever was charging to come to their senses.
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Interesting Conversationalist
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Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 9:13 pm
She hurt in places she couldn't remember ever hurting in. Dani knew the ache and burn after a work-out that had gone on too long, but these were real wounds. Despite them, she couldn't just run - everything in her screamed that she couldn't run. Part of it was misplaced pride, but most of it was the notion that if she was even able to get away, the youma would remain on the loose, tearing up the streets and looking for someone else to hurt.
Some kind of senshi she'd make if she let that happen, huh?
Still, it didn't make her job any easier. Without any real offensive attacks - really, goddamn powder, she couldn't have been the senshi of atomic bombs or something?! - her only recourse was to try to beat the thing into submission with her fists. It wasn't working for her so far, but hey, who knew?
She knew if her back didn't stop throbbing she was going to fall over and have to crawl to safety.
Darting through the powder, surprisingly unhindered, she spotted the youma. It wasn't facing her, so she at least had the advantage for a moment. She didn't have any weapons on her, but that wasn't going to stop her - there had to be some way to take the thing down. The powder veil wouldn't last forever, and if she was any judge of things, the beast was just going to be pissed off once it could see and breathe normally again.
Drawing her hands back in fists, she prepared herself to leap on the thing's back when a bright ball of light went whizzing by her. She barely managed to skid to a halt, stumbling a little, when she heard the creature let out an earsplitting shriek, watched it curl in on itself at the wound.
Head whipping, she opened her mouth to shout, then realized she would do little more than let the damn thing know where she was if she did that. She hesitated, not knowing if a similar attack was going to come, but now was her chance.
Throwing all caution to the wind, she hurtled herself at the youma, using all of her weight to land on its head and slam it into the ground. She heard a satisfying crack, felt the thing roll its shoulders, and began to pummel it atop the head.
The powder was already beginning to thin, but she paid it little mind, instead beating on the youma with everything she had in her. It wasn't the most elegant post, her legs crossed around its neck, barely balancing as she tried to beat the life out of the thing, but she thought she was doing pretty good.
Well, until it reared back, rising on its hind legs and dumping her on the pavement.
Stars, hot and bright, winked in front of her eyes, and she began to crab-walk back, wondering if her head was going to split in two, or if it actually already had.
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Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 8:25 am
Not for the first time, Sailor Pegasus decided to take a page out of Nerissa's book and grabbed a nearby stopsign that had been pushed over by the youma, gripping it tightly and pushing off the cement again, taking off towards the monster, cursing this senshi... whoever it was. Were they trying to get themselves killed? Running towards a monster like that with no weapon other than your fists was a good way to do it. As she approached, she pulled the sign back, swinging it full-force towards the monstrous creature, pushing it back just long enough to grab Mellagan by the arm, helping her to her feet quickly before leaping back a ways, just barely evading one of it's powerful tails.
There were plenty of things she could have said. What the hell were you thinking was certainly one of them. But she refrained, instead offering the more diplomatic approach, although her tone was tinted with obvious annoyance.
"Are you alright?"
Looking the girl up and down, she shoved the broken sign into the girl's hands, shaking her head before looking around for another weapon. She COULD do her attack again -- she had done it twice in one battle before, but not without getting extremely woozy, leaving her completely vulnerable. She had to make sure it was going to die if she was going to do her attack again. So, for now, it was melee weapons for the new duo.
If they were lucky, it wouldn't get up from that smack to the head. Then again, when were youma ever that easy to beat?
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Interesting Conversationalist
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Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2009 4:26 pm
She had never really thought that she was the only senshi in all of Destiny City, but to have one standing before her in full outfit, doing exactly what she was - going at the youma with everything she had - was a little startling. If she hadn't quite literally been in the middle of a life or death situation, she would have marveled a moment.
Instead, she accepted the stop sign, a laugh bubbling up at the sheer ridiculousness of it, and tried to ignore the ringing in her ears. The important thing at the moment was to beat the youma until it stopped even thinking about twitching; later, she could corner the other senshi and milk her for whatever information she had.
Because, even though she'd thought she was prepared for this senshi business, she most certainly was not. The five minute introduction plus the cool henshin pen hadn't done as much for her as she'd thought.
Expression grim, she replied, "Alright enough." and hoisted the stop sign like a bat.
Come and get it, b*****d she thought, eyes narrowed as the last of the powder was swept away by the breeze, revealing the youma in all its glory.
Tails lashing, the beast glanced between the two, rumbling a growl that made Magellan's pulse leap. Though they now had the advantage of numbers, the youma still looked about ten thousand times scarier than a couple of girls in really short skirts.
Keeping her eyes on the youma, she instructed, "Pincer attack!" and took off to the right, her intention to separate and attack from both sides. In theory, it would be awesome.
Of course, in theory, this thing would have been no problem to begin with.
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Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 7:37 pm
Pegasus gave the other senshi an incredulous look, her expression almost comical as the other senshi yelled out an attack, dashing towards the enemy? "Wait, what?" She replied in confusion. She had no time to think however -- as the senshi of powder ran forward, so did she, watching her carefully and trying to learn from her movements what she wanted. It was not until they were practically on top of the thing that she realized Magellan wanted a double-sided attack. Hence the yell of 'pincer' -- suddenly it made much more sense.
Kicking off the cement hard, the teal-skirted senshi moved to the other side of the thing, watching as it looked between them, as if trying to decide which of them to attack, and ultimately opening itself up for their hopefully-crippling blows. Swinging her bat-shaped metal piece back, she gritted her teeth, swinging with all her power towards the thing's skull, confident despite it all that it would work. Because that's just who she was. She had the utmost faith in them.
It would work.
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Interesting Conversationalist
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Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 9:37 am
Magellan didn't have time to waste. Correction, she didn't have the energy to waste time. Her entire body felt like one throbbing wound, and if they didn't kill the thing before she passed out, life was going to get a lot more awkward - and short - than she'd ever wanted it to. Hell, at this point, it was less about defeating the youma and saving the nearby population than it was getting the damn thing for the embarrassment it was causing her.
Magellan did not like when things were more difficult than she anticipated. She also really did not like when someone else had to rush in and help her out. She was very used to handling everything on her own, thank you very much, and even though most of her focus was on the battle at hand, at the back of her mind, she felt the hot grip of shame.
What kind of senshi had to depend on someone else, anyway?
The angle she'd chosen wasn't the best, but the timing was good. It had taken her longer to get around the far side of the beast - definitely because she was injured, otherwise it would've been no problem - and the other senshi was presently aiming a blow at its head. While Magellan would have liked to deliver the killing blow, she settled for swinging the stop sign with everthing she had, aiming for the neck.
If the couldn't beat the things skull in, by God, she was going to do her best to hack its neck off. Anything to kill it, and fast.
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Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 12:49 pm
As it happened, Magellan hadn't needed to worry about not dealing the death blow. As the two struck the youma, there was a resounding, sickening 'CRACK' followed by a gurgling noise as the thing tried to yowl, the sound obviously half-hearted and weak. The blow in opposite directions in two similar, yet distinct places had effectively broken it's neck, the monster's head angled sickeningly in Magellan's direction.
Uch. No matter how long she'd been a senshi, she would never get use to that sickening feeling of inhuman bones breaking.
Leaping back from the dying creature, Pegasus clutched her own weapon just as tightly, watching the youma with a cool, dispassionate look, confident it would die soon enough. Unaware of Magellan's internal conflict, she took a deep, slow breath, refusing to let her own mind wander. She had a few choice questions for this senshi, specifically dealing with why the hell she decided to run into battle like a kamikaze. The youma let out one last gurgle before it slumped to the ground, the body starting to hiss -- a sure-fire sign that it was definitely not human, if you hadn't been able to tell before. The teal-skirted senshi let out a soft, barely-audible sigh of relief.
Then she turned on Magellan.
"That was an interesting tactic," she said a little flatly, in a tone that clearly showed she thought her definition of interesting was more towards the negative connotation.
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Interesting Conversationalist
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Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 2:31 pm
Magellan couldn't help it; she winced at the sound of the bones breaking, and though she backed off a little, she couldn't help the quick roll of nausea. Killing things... she would not get used to killing things, she could tell that right away. No matter how inhuman the beast was, it had still be alive, and it had been fighting with everything it had to stay that way. Sure, it was a creature of darkness, and if they hadn't killed it, it would have certainly killed them, but...
But that didn't make it feel all right.
Her grip on the stop sign loosened as the youma's thrashing ceased, and she watched with a tight expression as life left it. They were the good guys, but she didn't feel so good about it. Maybe after she had a little time to herself, she'd be able to look back and feel comforted by the knowledge that she'd done the right thing.
Letting the stop sign swing to rest beside her, she glanced at the other senshi, resentment building as she did so. Now that the battle was over, she really wished that whoever the girl was would've just stayed out of it. She was convinced now, where she hadn't been before, that she could've handled it by herself; after all, the youma was dead, and she was still alive.
Battered, bruised, and with a splitting headache, but definitely still alive.
Still, she tried to keep her tone from sounding too petulant. She didn't entirely succeed. "It was getting the job done. Should I have just run away and let it break into someone's house, or attack someone on the street who wouldn't know how to defend themselves from it?"
Okay, so her ego and pride were both hurting more than a little. She hadn't meant to leap to the defensive quite so quickly, but she couldn't take back the words.
Chin jerking up, a stubborn light coming into her eyes, she decided she didn't want to take them back. What did the senshi really expect, anyway?
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Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 3:33 pm
"Weapons..." She started, tone a little darker, clipped with mild irritation, "probably would have been a good idea. That does not require running away, to my knowledge." It was no secret that Pegasus was not the most friendly senshi of them all... in fact, she was pretty undiplomatic, when it came right down to it. Especially if she thought the other person was incompetent. Which, unfortunately, do to this incident, was exactly what she thought of Magellan.
It really wasn't her fault. The fact was that Pegasus had been even more inexperienced that Magellan was, when she had first become a senshi. There was one thing, however, that really made the difference: their attacks. While Magallen's attack was relatively harmless in terms of physical damage, Pegasus had been lucky enough to have a kinetic blast as a first attack -- probably the only reason she had survived so long. But she had survived, and done so without anyone to help her, with the exception of Astraea's limited guidance.
It had made her less than sympathetic.
Quirking an eyebrow at the other senshi, Pegasus did, however, give her some credit for standing her ground.
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Interesting Conversationalist
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Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 6:03 pm
Pride had her straightening her spine, even though the small of her back ached like a bad tooth, and she narrowed her eyes. So she hadn't done the best job in the world on her first mission - sue her. She was new to this, and damn it, she didn't need some fancy senshi coming in, showing her how it was done, and looking down on her afterward.
It wasn't her fault she hadn't been gifted with a sphere that held actual attack power, and it wasn't in her nature to run away. In the future, she'd know to find a weapon, but for her first time out, she hadn't thought she'd done too badly.
It wasn't like she'd gotten a real crash course in how to dust youma.
Expression twisting, she glanced away a moment, eyes falling on the corpse of the youma. There was a part of her that was sad, even after all the damage that had been dealt to her. She thought that was normal, human. But, now there was nothing she could do.
"It all happened a little fast." Her ego wouldn't let her admit that this was her first venture into the world of senshidom, and when her eyes met the other senshi's, there was temper snapping in them. "I would've been fine. If you're expecting me to fall at your feet, you're going to be disappointed."
She pressed a hand to the small of her back, unable to ignore the ache there any longer. There was no more fight left in her physically, but she could run her mouth all night if she needed to. It was low of her, and to be honest, she was grateful - a little bit - but she was also embarrassed.
Embarrassed, mortified, shamed. She didn't like any of it, and it made her lash out.
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Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 6:41 pm
Pegasus' cold exterior melted a little as she realized the regret that had swept over Magellan, genuinely feeling for her. Her first battle had been much of the same. A black dog-like creature, too many eyes and huge gnashing teeth... it had almost tore her arm off. Back then, the youma hadn't been as powerful as they were now, hadn't been as big or threatening -- her attack had caused the monster to explode into many chunks of semi-rotting flesh. And yet she had felt... terrible. Horrible. She hadn't even been able to return to her room, because if it was one thing Rea Marshall did not do very often, it was cry. And that night, she had been in tears. She felt as if she had killed someone's pet dog, despite the logical part of her telling her that that was completely idiotic.
At least this girl wasn't crying.
Giving the senshi of powder a steely look, the strawberry blonde girl straightened, seemingly unfazed by her temper, an unsympathetic look plastered onto her face. "You've got the wrong senshi if you think that's what I wanted," Pegasus replied, the clipped tone back in her voice, already starting to back up into the darkness.
"No regrets. It's either them or you."
Taking another few steps back, the teal-skirted senshi began to dissolve into the shadows, turning on her heal as soon as she was shrouded enough she felt satisfactorily hidden, disappearing into the darkness. As with almost every time she ran from a senshi interaction, Pegasus did not feel good about it, her mood dark and guilty. This was especially true with semi-new senshi, of which she had met a few. She wasn't sure she had done the other senshi any favors. It was a shame that she had been Magellan's first -- she was by no means a Sailor Scout poster child.
She just hoped nothing bad would happen to her. Maybe this interaction would help show her just how cold the world was, when the negaverse was around to ruin things.
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Interesting Conversationalist
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Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 8:15 pm
Magellan didn't want her to go - for one thing, she wanted more answers - but there wasn't much she could do to stop her. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, she realized exactly how much she hurt, and where. It would be pointless to try to chase the mostly uninjured girl down, and what would she do if she did, anyway? Try to pick a fight?
It would've felt good, but what was the point? She'd just have to work her temper off some other way.
Frustrated, more with herself than the other senshi, she turned the opposite direction, noting the street sign. It would be a bit of a walk, but she felt she'd done enough for the night. Anyway, if she ran into another youma, she was going to be in trouble, so she ought to get home. Who knew if her parents would get a wild hair and decide to check up on her.
Beginning to walk, she sighed, limping her way along. First mission: total failure.
Because, while the youma was dead, she hadn't done it on her own, and she was limping away instead of marching off with her head held high.
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