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This was perhaps the best day of Derpraline's memory. Astraea, her beloved big sister, the reincarnation of Luna, the most important cat the little thing had ever met had given her a mission. HER. A MISSION. For an hour after receiving the request she had done nothing but tremble in excitement, rocketing around the dorm room she now shared with Mags. Her first, her beloved, her Mags!

Then, so carefully, she had stored up energy and hidden herself in a nondescript patch of bushes on the campus and done what no one but Astraea had ever seen her do - she'd gone to her human form. Amidst lace, satin, and crinkly taffeta she had made this newest pride of her hat collection, The Seeking Hat. It was nothing more than a black bowler, set with ear holes. Atop were two sproingy springy springs with cheerful pompoms glued to the ends where they jauntily waved with each motion of the feline.

It was, simply, her pride and joy!

Duhr had been so so happy to help and had even brought another senshi that Derpraline had not met before, but had fallen immediately in love with. She was covered in ribbons and had even dangled one lightly in front of Derp with a kind smile! When Derp had actually remembered her manners and thanked her, however, she had frozen and told her succinctly that good kitties did not talk. So she hadn't said a word in a long long time! Not even when they had spotted the pretty blue-haired senshi in pink and white, just like 'Straea had told her! She was so proud the hat worked!

Albali was being less optimistic and cheerful about the whole thing. Margaret Butler was, at best, chaotic. Brash and cheerful certainly, and her cat seemed to be exactly what it seemed - just as strange as she was. They'd met on patrol, and when the Tornado Senshi had mentioned that her half-witted little pet had been given a mission Albali had been forced to help. After all, in a search you had to have organization! It just wouldn't work otherwise!

Her skills had paid off, though Mags' sharp eyes and strong voice had been the one to make first contact. Now they were both fleeing through the night, chasing the Super Senshi. Desperately as she ran, the Senshi of Echoes wished she had had the foresight to ask Duhr to shoot her with some of her power, and they could have knocked her back easily!

But no, they hadn't counted on Sailor Nerissa getting the jump on them like she had. Now, energy flagging, they raced through the night to try and pin her down. "HEY! Come back here, we only want to talk to you!" Huff huff, god bless jogging regimes!

When they rounded the corner, the road was gone.

Or at least, it'd been separated -- it was now two grinding, fast-spinning whirlpools of concrete overlapping into both pavements, the traffic light groaning in disapproval as it bent its head down from the pull of one. It would have been impossible to pass in the center without being sucked in, which didn't look pleasant -- impossible to skirt around or the same fate would happen.

The buildings on either side were tall, not jumpable, the road itself narrow and set on a slight incline uphill. On the other side, the senshi they'd been tracking cupped one hand over her mouth, the sheen of her sweat not quite visible underneath the streetlights.

"This is not personal," she bellowed. "Have fun. Have nice lives."

And with that, Sailor Nerissa sprinted off down the street as fast as anyone could go in high-heeled sandals, which was proving fairly fast. She should have made a meep, meep!

Duhr continued to run forward (no water was gonna stop her!) but the wiser Albali managed to grab hold and yank her back by her frilly skirts, much to the tornado senshi's displeasure.

Duhr had opened her mouth to argue, but her quick-thinking partner had already come up with a plan. "Duhr, I need you to hit me with your twister."

"... what the hell?"

"We don't have time for this, I need you to hit me with your tornado, then I can use it and we can shove this whirlpool aside."

The taller senshi furrowed her brows in confusion, but as the small wriggling kitten in her bra chimed and chirped in for Duhr to do it, do it, Duhr merely shrugged her shoulders and lifted up her hands.

"Twistin' Wind!"

The tornado went sailing for Albali, who took the hit as gracefully as a girl could take being hit by a powerful gust of wind. Knocked to the side, she landed on the rough pavement in an instant, her arms and legs scraped and bleeding from the fall. Before Duhr could rush to her aid, however, Albali was up on her feet, her own hands poised and aimed toward the bouncing tornado left in Duhr's wake.

"Total Recall!"

A second tornado, much like Duhr's, came blasting out from the senshi of echoes' hands, aimed straight for the original funnel. It knocked against the wind, sending both tornadoes at the whirlpool in front of them. The water hissed against the wind but nevertheless was shoved to the side.

"Come on, Duhr!"

Mags stared blankly at the moving water before her, then felt her sleeve grabbed and yanked on as Albali directed them towards the side of the street now open and free from the whirlpool tugging. She clomped after the other senshi, still irritated that the runaway girl had tried to attack them at all. And here they'd been tryin' to be hospitable (though for what reason, she still wasn't sure).

"Al, gimme your ribbons," the blonde senshi practically growled, her back pressed against the building as the trio shimmied their way past the whirlpool and onto the street where Nerissa had dashed from, "I'm gonna hawg-tie this b***h."

"You will do no such thing!"

Ignoring the ribbons (and the huffy senshi partner), Duhr bent down and tore off her heels, throwing the shoes back as stockinged feet planted themselves on the cold pavement. "Fine. But I ain't going easy on her if she gives me trouble."

With that, she took off after the runaway senshi, sending another of her Twisting Winds in her path before her in attempts to slow down the faster girl.

Derp really was having the time of her life! Not only had they avoided the water entirely, but there was that funny wind that had blown her little antennae all over the place! She was purring now, in time with the clanking of her tiny cowbell as Mags continued to run after the senshi. Every now and then she would cheer them on with a "GO DUHR GO BALI GO GO!!" in a singsong voice.

This only served to irritate Albali, who was slowly becoming winded. Obstacle courses were never precisely her strong suit, but at least she was quick on her feet! Through the cars, she'd had to start thinking in dance terms just to avoid banging her lightly oozing cuts on chrome. One, two, lift, twirl, jete and down! Never again was she going to do what a lazy-eyed child cat told her would be 'incredible fun'! Never.

Looking up, she saw the whirlpool maker climbing and made a split second decision. "Duhr! You're gonna have to catch her, hope you're good at it!" Deep breath and, "Total Recall!" The winds shot straight ahead, blowing Albali about with it as it shook the metal. Hopefully it would shake the girl loose. If not, this was a gross miscalculation and they'd have to test how closely related to primates they were and fast!

"RAPE!"

Nerissa's bellow pinged from street to street on top of the roof, and she was still trying to slither her way along the concrete. When she apparently realised this would take most of her epidermis with it (and she was lighter than she looked: Duhr was nuggety, and heavier than she looked) she stopped, but insisted on yelling instead.

"WHITE SLAVERY," she bellowed, and when Duhr slapped her hand over the Super senshi's mouth Nerissa bit it -- she BIT it -- and her last yell was that of slightly desperation. Whatever the reason for this terrible capture, she had obviously used up all her trump cards and was digging deep in the bottom of the barrel for extra lives. "Thuban!" she said. "Thu -- "

The other hand was slapped over her mouth now, underneath her jaw to prevent biting. Albali had skinned her way up to join the other senshi, skipping over the kicking legs, and two brown eyes glared balefully up at both. The struggles continued.

But Derpraline's mission was a success!

"Mmf mmf mmf," the sailor senshi was saying furiously, mainly into a handful of Sailor Duhr's fingers. "Mmf MMF. Mmf mmf mmf."

"Good job."

And there was Luna, her pretty yellow dress fluttering in the wind, her blue eyes looking down a little dispassionately on their capture. Nerissa's gaze turned up to Astraea-Luna, and now the 'mmfs' were one long mmmf! of annoyance. The struggles increased. "Albali, Duhr. Hold her down. Stand on her hands if you have to. Duct-tape her, I really don't care."

Somehow Nerissa had spat out Duhr's fingers -- "This is bullshit," she was saying. "This is literally bullshit. Let me go -- I have strip gum in one pocket, epic swap here -- "

"I wasn't gonna do such thing," Duhr huffed softly, her cheeks still tinged pink at the notion she was being accused of trying to rape another senshi. With Astraea (er, or was it Luna again?) there, however, her words were dutifully quiet instead of rowdy and obnoxious.

As Albali plopped herself down on top of the senshi, Duhr rose, releasing her weight from putting too much pressure on the poor girl. She didn't have a clue as to why she was running, much less why they had to chase her down. Had she done something bad? Was she chickening out of the whole senshi deal? Duhr could understand that - wearing a frilly dress all the time was pretty terrible, even with the superpowers.

She frowned as she looked down. Aside from the giant butt bow, however, it didn't seem like this senshi had it that bad.

"Yes ma'am," Duhr finally responded, once the order sank into her head. Where in the world she'd find duct tape on a rooftop was beyond her, but holding down the prisoner, she could certainly do!

Frankly, Albali was in awe. Awe, and a bit of terror. Apparently these magical talking cats that didn't exist held more power over the senshi than she had originally thought. Ophelia hadn't been much for talking about the whole predicament, and there hadn't been much time. Trying to get information from Derpraline was a bit like being tutored in calculus by a first grader. It just didn't happen! So a run in with Astraea (Luna?) and her real power was a bit intimidating.

Lightly, she released Nerissa and checked to make sure that she hadn't hurt the senshi before looking over at the glowing feline. Derp was already clapping her hands in glee and trying to hug her beloved, most wonderful, incredibly powerful Astraea. Shaking her head at the compliment, Albali simply countered with a question and a Look. "What happened to her? I mean, great there's an outfit change but what's the significance?" 20 Questions, it was her favorite game.

Drunk with success and the idea of a compliment from the Glorious Leader, Derp was all but dancing around the quartet, skirts rustling and flaring and her bright blue eyes alight with happiness. It was a stark contrast to Nerissa's resignation, Luna's determination, Duhr's probable confusion, and Albali's awe. What had just happened was, to her, a wonderful thing. "I did good, 'Straea? I picked 'em! Sorta. But we did good?!"

Nerissa still lay flat on the ground, feigning being a log who could not get up. She was not talking. The feathers on her winged bow ruffled gently in the wind; ribbons pooled over her legs, blue streamers. There was still a gentle glow coming off her. Senshi always had some kind of energy signature, a kind of heat coming off them like static electricity. It was loud radio noise from the sailor soldier of Whirlpools: not understandable, but incredible all the same. Excepting how she didn't say a word.

"Eternal rank," said Luna. She was still looking down at her: one of Nerissa's bare shoulders was swirled with blue ink, another one high up on her buttock, studded with pink flowers. "Sailor Moon was the first to reach this height of power."

Derpraline was doing some kind of bizarre Endzone dance, her hat bouncing on her head as she hopped from foot to foot.
They were all standing around, Duhr and Albali looking the brand of awkwardly proud when you'd done something correctly but didn't quite know what: Derp, of course, was Derp.

"Mission's over," said Luna brusquely. "What you do now is up to you. Whatever that is. All I can do is equip you for it."

Eternal Sailor Nerissa made a noise into the concrete that sounded like a sad, deflating balloon.