[BAT] What Do You Call A Group of Crows? (Hema/Uph/Viv/???)

[Molten Tigrex]

Captain Hematite did not want to be out on a night like this, and he hoped his expression made this clear. He wasn't alone, though. He had Uranophane to keep him company - and wherever Uranophane was, it was a sure bet Vivianite was there too. The three of them (well, two, as far as Hematite was concerned - he didn't trust the senshi) had been planning this for a while, though, as Ursula had reminded him about twenty times in the past couple of days. Maybe he'd secretly been hoping everyone would forget about how they penciled in the date. Maybe he didn't want to be confronted with failure again.

The plan was pretty straightforward - Uranophane would babysit some screaming hostage for a while, and Vivianite would stand around broadcasting her Negaverse energy just to make sure suspicions could be confirmed. If any particularly heroic senshi showed up to investigate, Vivianite would let loose with her attack, and Hematite would dispatch the newcomer in a sneak attack. Uranophane and Vivianite were supposed to aid him in the fight if anything went wrong by this point, throwing the hostage off to one side (minus a starseed). It wasn't foolproof, but it wasn't altogether terrible, provided they actually lured some senshi out of hiding. And as Hematite had made absolutely sure, they could make a quick getaway if the cops arrived first.

"Now remember, Lieutenant," Hematite said as he shoved the civilian hostage in question at Uranophane. He had to talk over the piercing wail of a girl about the same age as the two of them. They were all loitering on the Meadowview campus, and the girl in question was a student there, given she was sporting the traditional coral and white uniform. It was possible that Janice or Vera would recognize her; Hematite wasn't thinking about that. "You'd better make sure they're still screaming. Threaten them. Break bones. Take your goggles off. Whatever."

The bladed boomerang appeared in one hand, embedded watch ticking under his fingers. He looked from Uranophane to Vivianite impatiently. "Any last questions, girls?"  

[cibarium]

Uranophane didn't know the girl. She knew she'd seen her once or twice, some freshman down the hall, the braided bun she wore was vaguely familiar -- other than that no name, no classes in common, no extracurricular activities. Most of the sense of familiarity she got from their hostage was from the school uniform; Janice always hated that uniform. The girl's skirt kept bunching up as she struggled against her captor, Uranophane stood ramrod straight and held her arm in a vicegrip while Hematite continued the briefing.

"Besides wondering why nobody thought of doing something like this sooner, I think we've covered everything well enough," she replied. She'd given Hematite a full rundown on the Meadowview campus, he knew it as well as anyone who'd never actually been there could. The plan was fairly simple and almost irritatingly so, they had their location and their hostage and their secret weapon, now they just had to wait and see if anyone would show up.

Her own job was pretty goddamn simple, seeing as it seemed like their captive wouldn't be finished wailing anytime soon. She turned her gaze to Vivianite to see if she might have had any concerns -- that black hole in her chest was always so disconcerting to look at. So she pointedly kept her gaze level with her charge's eyes.  

[Ithiltari]

Vivianite did not want to be here either, but no one had asked her. She was vaguely aware of Hematite's wariness of her, but didn't particularly care. He was only technically her commander - Uranophane had been the one she'd been assigned to, and it was really only because asking Uranophane for confirmation of his orders all the time would prove tiring, boring, and inefficient that Vivianite listened to him at all. So she'd had the plan explained for her, never expressing any of the immense uncertainty she had regarding her attack. Not that it was really an attack; it was more along the lines of a defensive measure, but one that could be put to good use creating an ambush.

Which was, she had to admit, probably safer for her than springing it on someone who was charging at her. Vivianite had started brooding over her role in this and what exactly would happen when she had to do her part, and thus tuned Hematite out. This was not unusual. It was only when she felt Uranophane's gaze that she was made aware that they were waiting for some response from her.

Having no idea what was expected, she merely waved her hand in a general sort of 'well, let's get on with it' gesture, hoping that would suffice. It certainly looked like they were ready to get started....  

[candy lamb]

Their quarry arrived.

It was a sailor senshi with dusty blonde hair and a vividly green fuku, neon-green, nauseatingly eye-gougingly green. She came into the area as cautiously as a deer being caught on camera, eyes locking on to Uranophane and her sobbing hostage. Her shoes clattered on the campus concrete as she emerged from a clump of trees, tossing her head back as her eyes hardened.

"You!" She was one of those ones who needed to do hand gestures. Her arm was thrown forward in the classic gesture of my finger points!. "Let. Her. Go."

Ah, classic.

"Let her go and maybe I'll let you live." A bargainer, even better. There was a slight uncertain quaver in the senshi's voice amidst all the bluffing. The hostage had stopped screaming, but before she could tip off the whole thing Uranophane had shut her up -- gagging would have been too obvious, but there must have been some threat made. "You have ten seconds."  

[cibarium]

"And so our game begins," Uranophane observed, smirking, as the noise of heels clacking on the ground reached their ears before the senshi made her valiant entrance. That hadn't taken very long at all -- they really should have started this sooner, if all that was needed to trim away at their competition was to stand out in the open with a screaming civilian once in a while.

While their chartreuse-on-lime adversary was greeting them with theatrics she must have taught herself by watching endless marathons of old superhero movies, Uranophane had leaned down close to her hostage, so her lips were practically brushing against the schoolgirl's ear:

"You should keep your mouth shut or you'll be dead before anyone can save you."

The girl shut up. Uranophane turned her attention back to the senshi, wearing a smug look that suggested she didn't feel nearly as threatened as the warning was supposed to make her feel. Two seconds passed, then five, then seven, then the officer gave a tilt of her head and said, "Fine, you can have her."

She changed her grip so she had one hand on each of the girl's shoulders, putting her enhanced strength into keeping her glued to the ground.

"You'll just have to find her first. Now, Vivanite!"

And without further pause, the girl was thrown to the concrete -- she hit the ground a few feet away from Vivianite's shoes.  

[Ithiltari]

Uranophane had chosen her spot well - there was something for Vivianite to hide behind nearby. Not very well, and certainly not anything that would have stood up to more than a cursory examination, but it was enough to obscure the location of the corrupted senshi from the uncorrupted one they'd managed to lure.

Vivianite had stepped out of hiding, however, as soon as Uranophane had begun talking, taking a few steps closer to the other Negaverse agent. She had to be somewhat close at hand to everyone involved; her 'attack' only covered a relatively small area, after all.

While the seconds ticked past, Vivianite studied the opposing senshi. There was nothing about her to indicate what her abilities might be, unless that bright green uniform meant something to someone else. A momentary pang of regret for what they'd done already - and what they planned to do - echoed through the corrupted senshi's soul, but it was a temporary thing. Who knew what this girl would think of her, a senshi serving the Negaverse, standing there unconcerned while a civilian was threatened.

A black gloved right hand had already drifted into a half-raised position by the time the civilian landed at her feet. Uranophane spoke - an order, and Vivianite answered. "Perennial Eclipse," she said, barely loud enough to be heard. It was apparently enough for her ability to trigger as her hand swept out in an arc in front of her, bright red blossoms from an unknown flower billowing out from somewhere.

They faded after only a moment, turning black and forming a fog that grew and formed a neat dome around the four of them. Vivianite's face was blank, her purple eyes emotionless as the fog swirled about them all, cutting off the vision of everyone within the dome.

Everyone except Vivianite, who stood at the center of it all, able to see everything that was going to happen.  

[Molten Tigrex]

Everything went black.

Not that it was unexpected. Well, save for the would-be rescuer. Vivianite and Uranophane were safely crouched (were they crouched? He imagined they were crouched. They seemed like the type to cower. What he would have paid to see that.) somewhere behind Hematite, and he hoped like hell that Uranophane had the sense to liberate the starseed from their hostage, one less thing for them to worry about tonight. Charonite had made Hematite train blindfolded before some time ago, citing something about honing his other senses; it had never made any sense. Even Hematite blinked a few seconds initially, as if irritated by the complete lack of vision despite knowing it was coming. Three seconds - a long chain sprang into existence in one hand, whereas the boomerang disappeared. He didn't need to see it to know how it worked, that it worked, to feel the individual chain links in his grasp - he'd been training and (occasionally) fighting for an entire year with one.

It made a distinctive whir in the air as he spun it for momentum off to the side, generously just far enough away from his teammates not to 'accidentally' knock anyone in the head with the watch. It was too bad too, really. Eight seconds. He curved his arm through the air as though cracking a whip, and the chain snapped and followed with precision borne of far too much practice. The watch didn't jar and hit the concrete, and the chain hung taut in the air. The senshi may have had the good sense to move in those ten seconds, maybe to start unleashing an attack. He wasn't exactly in a position to see what she was doing. But despite whatever sense the senshi's superhero training may or may not have taught her, his weapon had grappled and locked itself around some part of her, unknown in the oppressive darkness. With a grin only Vivianite would have been able to see, Hematite immediately yanked the chain back toward the group. He felt it jangle and jerk wildly in retaliation, but there was a distinctive dragging sound against the concrete on the opposite side. This was all going too slowly, and the garish green senshi might still attack while they were all magically blind. But he didn't want Vivianite lifting the darkness just yet, not if it was an advantage. He started moving, reeling in what little of the chain he could, trying to use the senshi's struggling to force her toward his silent teammates' hiding spot in the center of the darkness, clinking all the while.

"Uranophane, you ever kick something half to death?" he asked the void, trying to mask the urgency in his voice. "And I do mean only half. If she dies because you put your boot through her skull, the General-King's going to do the same to you. Just get over here. Hot Pink, you tell us if your senshi friend tries anything."