Welcome to Gaia! ::

Pierrette was worried when she saw the gym's door many feet away from its hinges. Was she too late? Had zombies devoured the teammates she was supposed to meet? If she wasn't too late, was there anything she could even do? She didn't know what to do with this pen, she doubted she could even write with it.

Still, she ran at full speed into the gymnasium. No blood, nothing. Just a few survivors.

Relief almost made the poor girl fall to her knees, but she managed to wobble away from the door before she sat down. She had gotten there as fast as she could, doing her best to make sure that Ignacio kept up with her. She didn't even introduce herself to him in her eagerness to obey orders. What if he had been eaten?

Pierrette turned her head to look at the door, but the glint of the pen caught her eye. The familiar emblem of Pisces was on it, and it was covered in shades of candy blue and pink, like a cotton candy machine at a fair.

"I do hope I can write with this..." she mused to herself. "It's so cute!"

Topher could honestly say that he hadn't been to the actual gym in awhile. He may have done a "sport" but it never required any practice or games whatsoever. Yvette was back to normal and that was good. She was probably just as confused as he had been before the girl in green had cleared his mind. Yvette was following him. He could have turned around or tried to explain but what could he say? Still, there wasn't any choice in the matter of moving. The other zodiac senshi were in there and he had to find them and then go find more survivors. That was his mission and he had to do it. The overwhelming feeling to carry out whatever had been asked of him was stopping anything else from going through his mind. If this was how he was going to survive then he was going to be whatever this pen made him.

"I almost forgot where the stupid gym was. I barely come here," his voice was bouncing slightly, elevated with his mood. He would have turned to Yvette, motioned to her with his hand to come closer but his eyes were transfixed elsewhere. Blue eyes were trailing along the pen. The immaculate sign of Taurus was almost hypnotizing. This little pen was going to make him a soldier. Second-in-command in fact. Whatever this was, it was more important than anything in his possession.

Completely lost in his thoughts, It wasn't until he got closer that he saw that door was swinging on it's hinges, making a soft creaking noise as it did. His eyes narrowed, steps coming slower and quieter as he crept along the walkway. Were there zombies inside? Did someone run out in a panic? He wasn't sure but he knew enough about swinging doors to know that it was good to check out everything before entering especially at this school. He pressed himself up against the wall beside the door quickly looking between the open slats as it swung. It was a girl and a boy. The girl seemed to be fawning over a pen! This was definitely someone he needed to talk to. At least he knew there were actually others and it wasn't just a fool's errand.

"Hello," he called out. His hand slowly pushed the door open, hand holding up the pen so it was in her line of view. "I'm one of you. A Zodiac...or something like that. I have a friend with me too. Don't attack me with dodge balls please!"

"I'm so happy that there's someone with the power to heal like that," said Pierrette as she ran in ahead of Ignacio. "We have hope! But that strange man said that I'd have to save myself..."

Pierrette clutched her henshin pen to her chest and closed her eyes. "I've got to do my best, then! I'm a soldier now!"

The soon-to-be Pisces was taken out of her daydream by someone calling in.

"I don't have dodge balls... wait... Zodiac?!" Pierrette ran past Ignacio to the doorway again, staring at her future higher-up with a breathless smile on her face. Aww, his friend was cute, too!

"So you met that strange man with the bumps on his head? You have one of these?" Pisces held up her pen, the cheerful colors glinting in the fluorescent light.

"He called me Pisces, but my name's Pierrette. What's your name?" She nodded to both Topher and Yvette, offering the latter a wave, too. She was so cute, Pierrette wanted to bake her a thousand cupcakes and buy her a stuffed animal.

The thought of Yvette lacing her fingers with his made this situation seem so surreal. They could finally touch. It felt like this was actually going to end and they were going to go on with their lives and make something of themselves rather than dying here. Topher dropped the pool cue to the gym floor to free his hands so he could focus directly on not dropping the pen. He didn't need that pool stick anymore and that was obvious. These were friends.

As she introduced himself, the idea of senshi became a bit more clear. "Pisces?..." Well, they really were zodiacs. It wasn't just a cool team name or something. "Well, Pierrette, Ignacio. I'm Taurus but normal people just call me Topher," he replied, twirling the pen deftly between his fingers to show that he did indeed have it. So only one of them was an actual senshi? That would do. Where were the others? They were all dead and gone were they? That wouldn't do any of them any good. As if he was expecting other people jumping down from the bleachers, his eyes darted towards the otherwise empty gymnasium. Yep. Just them. The thought made him pull Yvette a bit closer. They were still in some sort of danger

"I don't know anything about a beginning. I don't know much at all..." It was true. Beyond what he had been told, there wasn't much he had to go off of besides finding survivors and they couldn't do that with only four people. Two of which were technically completely useless. That option was a definite 'no.'

"Well...I do know one thing," his voice hesitated for a moment, dropping in and out as he thought of how to present it right. "Apparently...I'm supposed to be second-in-command to a Captain and we're supposed to be waiting for zodiacs," he finally got out, pointing the pen towards Pierrette before continuing, "I take it you aren't the Captain considering that your friend asked what was going on, yes?"

Even though Topher introduced himself first, Pierrette regarded Yvette first. It wasn't because she didn't like Topher, on the contrary if he was the Second-in-Command she should treat him with respect! But Yvette was so shy... and it looked so difficult for her to introduce herself, let alone speak.

"It's really nice to meet you, Yvette!" Pierrette tried to make eye contact with her to show that she wasn't going to bite... but if she was going to succeed, she would have to duck underneath Yvette and stare up at her from the floor. That would certainly terrify the pretty girl, so Pierrette decided against it.

"Second-in-command? Captain? Oh goodness, I'm no captain. I was just told that I'm Pisces, and that I should head to the gymnasium where others would be waiting. I guess the 'others' would be you?"

Pierrette held out her henshin pen and touched the tip against Topher's. She figured if he was going to be dramatic with his, she might as well join in on the "all for one and one for all" thing.

"When you found out that you were Taurus... did you feel anything?" the girl paused, then started to laugh. "I know it sounds silly! But, I mean.. did you feel, I don't know... like something had been missing?"

[NOTE: Skipping forward from 2,327 MILES and gathering Abeline, Lucas, Elke, Giselle, Aurelia and Hero at the meeting point]

The second gymnasium was getting a little crowded now, but it was crowded with more cheer and positivity than it ever had been before, when the sole members hiding out there were Serenade, Hero and Aurelia. It had taken a lot of talking, some henshin-pen swapping and (as expectedly) an argument for Abeline Froust to lead Hero Barrett's merrie men back home, and Hero Barrett was still tight-mouthed and grim. She was not a sailor senshi. She was, however, a leader and an organiser, damn the lack of a short skirt -- it wasn't as though the others could access their powers anyway, save Aurelia and Giselle who were stuck as Libra and Capricorn -- and some bitching from Astraea. Nobody bitched like Astraea. She had been gifted with the powers of b***h.

"All right," boomed Hero's beautiful, contralto voice as they entered the gym, "I want to see some organisation! Zodiacs, to the left of the bleachers! Others, to the right! If this is our last push, people, then I do not want to see you milling around!" Natural control: the tall, boyish redhead. "Ignacio, go and open the supply closet just in case! I do not want a zombie invasion when we are sitting ducks!"

Hero also had a gun at her side. This was bad if you knew how Hero Barrett aimed.

"Zue had better return soon with the Ancient Lady," Astraea groused to Abeline, under her breath. "This is ridiculous."

Foramen followed along behind, as usual. Sue led, and Foramen was the security barrier between the precious Queen behind him and anything that may lie ahead. Maybe five foot of angry unspecific-gendered redhead didn't sound too imposing, but after their last few awakenings, Foramen was scowling like a serial killer in need of his next fix and he had the ready-to-snap temper to match it. Marching into the gym full of those retard-Zodiacs and useless human survivors (some former zombies) did nothing to help his mood. He would be surprised if even Astraea and all of her bitching could get something useful out of this group.

"Sit before you fall over," he told Sue, pausing behind the cat-boy. It would be just like Fate to make Sue fall and knock himself unconscious before awakening the final senshi.

Who was... Hero Barrett? Foramen was grudgingly impressed. And she had a ******** GUN. Where had the guns been when weapons to take on zombies had been handed out? Foramen felt distinctly ripped off.

"Last one, then you can take a nap," he tried to encourage Sue. Totally not Foramen's field of expertise, but anything to get this show on the road and get out alive. Hopefully Serenity wasn't banking on Sue to do much during this 'take down the shield' phase, because Sue looked ready to pass out at any minute.

It didn't take long to get to the gym, though on a leisurely day, Grayson could have spent the better part of an hour trekking there. He liked to take his time, enjoy the scenery, but Barren Pines was no picturesque campus at the moment. The black dome cast everything into a dismal light, and his newfound humanity was something he wasn't willing to have taken from him just as soon as it was returned - so he hurried, doing his best to avoid distractions along the way. He didn't even really talk to Remi, which was strange in an of itself; he wasn't the most talkative fellow, but even he generally wouldn't ignore someone for an entire walk.

Still, as they approached the doors, his smile came back in full confidence. He released Remi, though the hand around his pen tightened, and he walked through, eyes quickly roving the place for a familiar face. He felt a little disappointment when he didn't see Alease or Cam, more when he didn't see Benny - he really wanted to talk to Benny, see how he was doing, make sure he wasn't wandering around as a member of the undead - and the smile began to slip a bit.

He did recognize people. His classmates, though the majority of them he didn't know too well. They seemed to be split across the gym, but he didn't pay much mind to this. When his eyes fell on Ignacio, he smile came back full force, and he strode purposefully across the gym to him.

He didn't know Ignacio that well. In life, they hadn't been the best of friends. In fact, they'd only really started to get to know one another after they'd awoken as zombies; Nacio was the first one Grayson had run into, and they'd talked for a while. He'd let him talk about his family, and that put him high in Gray's books. So, he didn't think twice about marching over to him, clutching his pen tightly so that he wouldn't drop it, and dragging Ignacio into a hug.

It wasn't crushing. It wasn't even mildly uncomfortable, unless you were bothered by things like hugs. It was almost relieved, and it certainly wasn't fleeting - here was proof that someone else he'd seen was revived, and here was hope for everyone else.

"It's good to see you." Did he care that no one else around the gym seemed to be clinging to each other as lifelines? Not really.

Grayson would have never cared about something like that.