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A soft, long sigh worked its way free of a knitted black-and-red scarf, puffing up before dispersing in the cold night air. Carter Martin, new to Destiny City as of yesterday was hopelessly, hopelessly lost, and the gently falling snow wasn't helping matters. He figured it would be easy to tip-toe out of his family's apartment late at night and visit the corner's 24 hour grocery store, located just down the street from the apartment building. Besides, it was more than just a good deed for him: someone ate the last s'mores poptart, and to avoid a war between himself and two siblings over the last one, it would be easier to just buy another box.

Never mind that the same place can look completely different at night, moreso with the addition of vision-obscuring snow. Carter's hand worked its way out of his pocket to gently brush a long strand of metallic-blue hair out of his eyes. Where was he now? He recognized this street as much as he recognized all the others, which was not very much at all. He looked one way, then the other before crossing the street and continuing on, either trying in vain to look for something familiar or trust his feet to take him in the right direction.

He didn't quite trust the stories of terrorists running around, and monsters popping up to attack. To him, they were nothing more than a government-funded hype used to lure more tourists into the city. They were... right?

Sadly the extent that Carter knew about Monopoly was that its character-pieces had a dog, a shoe, and a canon. And green hotels. Or were the hotels red and the houses green? He couldn't exactly remember, but that was quite alright since his siblings were pleased that it was a game they could win with little trouble.

The snow crunched under Carter's foot as he paused, blinking in the ill-light in a squint, trying to find the speaker. It wasn't too hard, thankfully – she did stick out in comparison to the purple-paled brick wall she stood next to, and her goggles were a dead give-away. He puffed out another cloud of steam, his olive green eyes narrowing as he studied her.

Was it October? No, no Halloween, it was January. Specifically, his birthday, and that was a quiet affair earlier, celebrated with a delicious vanilla cake. He even got a new skateboard! It was a pity Destiny City was covered in snow, there was no way he could go skateboarding right now, not in this weather. Well, he could but he wouldn't get very far. He'd end up falling into the snow more than once and... in all honesty, that wasn't very fun. Carter tried it once.

The boy decided to very wisely take a step back, away from her and her grin. “Who says I'm out all alone?” He asked, raising a finger to point at her. “You're here. That doesn't make me very alone, does it?”

Okay, that grin was doing nothing to make Carter feel any more comfortable with the situation. Come to Destiny City!, the billboards said, Your search for your destiny ends here! Why did his younger sister have to keep parroting that phrase over and over again as soon as his father announced the move? Sure, it made it sound like a good city at the time, but now...

Now he was sure that he found his destiny, and he didn't like her one bit. Sure the goggles were cool, but circling? Circling like the slow, lazy triangular fin of a shark that swims around and around a yellow raft filled with survivors with no land in sight... Yeah, Carter definently needed an adult right now. Or at least his skateboar- wait! There was snow on the ground. Was it possible to have a skateboard that was part sled to go on snow?

As she spoke, Carter broke away from his thoughts and tried to watch her, belatedly realizing that she had gotten behind him. He half-turned, trying to keep her in his sights. “Oh great,” he grumbled, “This isn't more of that 'every man an island' thing, is it? Stranger or not, I don't think you're one to benefit from mugging...?” Or if she did, Carter would be in deep crap. Never mind the fact that a mugger with glowing goggles, while looking cool, didn't strike him as being very helpful to that line of work.

Either way, it wasn't very good for Carter. He just wanted to grab some munchies! But with a step forward from her spurred a quick two-step scramble backwards from him. It wasn't far enough to take him out of her lunge-range, but it also wasn't far enough for him to reach out and try to grab her wrists, trying to deflect the fingers curved like claws up and away.

"Whoah! No thanks!" He gasped, bracing himself and trying desperately to keep his balance. While there was snow beneath their feet, it did little to help either one with its appearance. The ice beneath the snow, however, was doing its best to try and send Carter sliding down to his knees. For now he was standing, attempting to block and deflect Uranophane's reach.

There wasn't any doubt in the fact that Carter was currently outmatched. Even though Janice looked lighter and less of a threat than Carter (whose spikey hair, when properly jelled, looked as if he had a pet blue porcupine on his head), any thoughts of her simply being an out-of-placed mugger were literally dashed aside as she slapped him. He released her on reflex, twisting with the blow to land face-down in the snow. He was lucky Uranophane wasn't a captain -- such a blow would have probably twisted him enough to make face-to-wall contact, and that such behavior wasn't allowed until the second date!

"Ooof!" He grunted, facedown in the snow as he tried to figure out how he got there. Wasn't he just standing?!

The unlucky boy's star seed was as good as hers now. She'd incapacitated him with just one swipe of the hand, and with all of the ice on the ground it would be a bit of a feat for him to be able to get up right away. Uranophane was enjoying this far too much. Work was always a little more fun when her victims made it interesting, and watching Carter trying to piece together what had just happened to him did a lot to broaden the already-wide smile on her face.

She was taking her sweet time taking this star seed, which led to a literal downfall -- upon taking a slow step forward, and before she could register the soft noises behind her, the force of Chloe's kick landed square on her shin and she was knocked wildly off balance, skidding to the ground.

"God damn it, who-- guardian cat..."

Slowly, carefully, the Negaverser picked herself up off the ice, glaring in the direction the cat had dragged the civilian off to. She'd been briefed on those. Their heads were just about worth a full promotion.

Those ears and tail were out of her sight by the time she was balanced enough to run, but that didn't matter -- if she wasn't going to bring its head to Queen Beryl, she was going to spend the rest of the night trying.

Chloe only let go of the other boys wrist once they had stopped- and were out of sight of the entrance to the alley. She had over exerted herself as well- so her breath was ragged and shallow. She kept her ears turned towards the alley entrance.

"We don't have much time- she will be back soon and out for blood. Listen you just.. HAVE to trust me on this. Ok?" Without another word- the once human looking girl went back into feline form. Chloe shivvered once- the transition from human to feline took some energy.. but if this was going to work she needed to be able to run.

"Look- I would give you the whole initiation speech but unless you feel like living to see another morning you just need to follow this plan." Doing her little flip in the air- Chloe landed back on the snow covered ground with a pen in her mouth. She dropped it at the feet of the boy. "Listen to me. You need to pretend you are someone different from the boy that Negaverse agent just saw. JUST TRUST ME- your identity is your most powerful weapon so do not use it lightly. Hold up that pen and shout "Merope Star Power, Make Up!"

She could hear footsteps now heading this way. "And be quick about it! I am going to distract the Agent, you need to transform." She prayed that the senshi was nothing like a certain senshi, looking at you nemesis, and will actually do as told. She wouldnt last long against a negaverser alone. The only thing she had was her speed. Running out of the little cubbyhole they had found- Chloe turned to face the negaverser. "HEY! DIPSHIT!" She turned around soon after and ran down the alleyway between the homes. At least she knew this area didnt have any dead ends like the last time she was chased.

Carter's mouth dropped as the girl transformed into a cat. A CAT. A cat that could talk and do backflips. He decided immediately that he liked this kickass cat, and wondered if he could teach his pet to do flips too. I mean, he just saw it happen! It was possible!

Then again, his pet couldn't speak like this one. Maybe she was a faerie? Magical? There was no argument about the magical part of her, considering the pen that she held. He knelt down and picked it up, turning the cool metal this way and that in his hands. It wasn't a solid color like all his other pens, but a chilly light-to-dark blue that reminded him of water. The selling point for him was the shiny gold-colored coin on top of it, with a skull and crossbones. What was it called again? A dublin? Dooblin? Dewblean? Doubloon! That was it.

He realized the cat was still speaking.

"Nega-what? Different? Wh- okay! Merope Star Power, Make Up!" If this was a hoax, then the person who trained this talking, back-flipping pen-summoning cat was an expert. At the same time, though... was it really a trick? An illusion?

Carter would have had these thoughts if he had time to think. Instead, as soon as he said the magic words the boy felt... different. The doubloon on his pen seemed to glow and spin around before he felt... something cool upon his forehead. He grinned, giving into the urge to spin around as the sound of rushing water seemed to engulf him along with a bright light. A heavy weight surrounded his neck before a soothing, comforting force that felt like a wave crashed onto him, changing his heavy winter street clothes out for lighter, more suitable attire: a white vest, blue ascot, and pants. He wiggled his toes in his boots and spun again as the wave of energy seemed to rise up again, twisting to wrap itself around his waist and manifest as a sash.



"OH YEEEEAH!" Sailor Merope announced, pumping a gloved fist into the air. This was more like it!

...

Now what was it that the cat had said? Something about pretending to be someone different in order to...? OH! Right! That scary lady!

Merope ducked out of the alley and looked around, immediately spotting the duo... as well as something else. With a grin, the boy ran over to a snow-covered parked car and jumped up onto it, calling out. "Hey lady! Shouldn't you pick on someone your own size? I'm Sailor Merope, and dude? You're about to wipeout!"