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CLANKA-CLANK-CLANK was the sound echoing over and over in the deserted night as a tiny little ball of golden fluff topped with what looked like a fedora of royal purple ringed with white ribbon and stuffed with rainbow feathers flew as fast as it could along the street behind the youma.

It really wasn't the job of a guardian cat to patrol, but sometimes Derpraline was just in the right place at the right time. She had been successful recently in saving a few humans and turning them into awakened senshi and was quite enthused with her success. It was so glee-inducing that now the tiny kitten spent as much time as she could roaming the town at night to perhaps try and save a few more senshi, broaden their options even more. Astraea was incredibly pleased with the little cat, and upon being told about turning Polaris into a super senshi, had actually hugged her! It hadn't been a long hug, but for the aloof silver cat, it was quite a big deal for Derpraline.

When she'd seen the orange and cream senshi dripping blood from afar, she'd immediately done something so incredibly typical of Derp that really it would have surprised no one - she chased her. It wasn't easy to do, being that she was roughly the size of a volleyball. But somehow, in a burst of agility that would have shocked any of 'her' senshi, the tiny cowbelled kitten made it onto the dumpster next to the senshi. "Senshi ok?" Softly she mewled in distress and lightly rubbed against the girl's ankles reassuringly. Derp was there, everything would be ok! Unfortunately she was sometimes a bit of a liability.

"Senshi fight youma?"

Trying? They were supposed to win, not try! Derpraline had heard this from the scary teacher at Hillworth, while she was hiding in the grass there catching bugs. There was something about them all being pansies, which she asked Mags about, and Mags said that pansies were flowers. That made absolutely no sense, and so the kitten ignored this and went with the idea that was more 'go, fight, win'! Certainly Mags never lost. Or Derp had never heard about Mags losing! This was new for the kitten, and she was stumped.

Then she was flying through the air, squashed against the pretty striped senshi's chest, yowling in shock. It was very hard to keep her claws sheathed, but Derpraline happily controlled herself. There were two options. Try to run before it caught them again, or the beam. She'd used the beam before, on Taranis' youma. Astraea had told her all about it, and there was use. "Pretty senshi can run fast? If no, Derp can do it! Derp has her star!" It was something that she told herself every morning. Derpraline was a good Guardian, she was a pretty Guardian, she was a star! A very special star! Astraea's favorite star! The last was her favorite, and always made the kitten go into fits of purring for at least ten minutes. The thought even now had her purring lightly which was, naturally, inappropriate as hell.

Hopefully Alkaid didn't mind!

A little help? Derp was little, and she knew a good way to help! As they got up higher above the street and bought a little more time, Derpraline considered her options. It took a few moments, but there were really only two. She could use her magical star and they could run away, but the senshi didn't want to run, which made the youngest guardian cat think better of her for it. Lots of senshi liked to run away, and Derp didn't mind that, but it was always notgood. But she couldn't use her star more than once, and that wouldn't help anything if she was very very tired, would it?

Instead, the fluffy little cat leapt out of Alkaid's arms still purring and when she landed, there were bare human feet on the grated metal and an exquisitely dressed little girl. Somewhere, a Victorian mother's heart was beating with joy for the girl's proper attire and pretty smile. "Pretty senshi, give me a hand?" There wasn't much time to do this the right way, so she simply reached and plucked it up, holding it between her own and closing her eyes. The star in the center of her forehead flared slowly, glowing brighter and brighter until something appeared in front of Alkaid - her henshin pen. It warped and changed before exploding into light and shooting into the senshi's body where it had come from.

"Say fast, Alkaid Star Power, make-up! Hurry!" Her bright and adoring eyes were full of faith and joy that this process always brought, and every inch of her was full of confidence in what was about to happen. Certainly now, the youma could be dusted? If it worked right...hopefully it worked right!

It was amazing the amount of energy that a guardian cat gave off when not in cat form. Taranis was several buildings away scraping a piece of gum from his boot with a piece of chipped concrete when the warm deluge of positive energy wafted his way. He liked to stay on rooftops when patrolling, and tonight wasn't any different. The night had been relatively quiet, making this energy explosion the most interesting thing so far.

Curious, Taranis hopped from roof to roof until he reached the one where he could read the energy signature. There were noises coming from the side of the building. The black iron ladder of the fire escape jutted up on to the roof, and Taranis made his way over there, laying a hand on the railing and peering over the age.

There were two people a few levels down. One was familiar: the omnipresent Derp, his own guardian cat. The other was not: a senshi with striped leggings and bright fuku. His hand vibrated furiously on the fire escape as something struck it. "Derp, what's going on down there?" he asked, shouting so she could hear. From that angle, Taranis could not see the youma.

Alkaid had begun to wonder what the two of them were possibly going to do - other than have the most dangerous staring contest the world had ever seen, of course. Then, from above, a male voice rang out and Alkaid had to wince as the little cat next to her practically squealed in excitement. If Derp knew who it was it had to be a good thing, right?

She had resigned herself to letting Derp take care of the situation and explain it to this mystery person when, out of the blue, Derp started to cry. Was this really because she thought she had failed? "Oh, no, don't-" she started, but was quickly drowned out by the hysterical cries of the little cat. She couldn't help it though, even with the danger below her, she wanted to comfort the poor thing. "It's not your fault, I'm just.. more of a support Senshi okay? I'm not made to attack alone."

She frowned then and moved to the edge of the fire escape. Making sure her hands were securely grasping the railing, she leaned out a little so she could look up and try to see the stranger. She could see bits of.. someone through the railings, which she supposed was good enough. "I don't have an attack that will kill this thing, can you help please?" She was a lot less hysterical than Derpraline, but her voice still had an edge to it despite her attempts to control it. She just had to go with the assumption that if Derp knew this stranger, he was a Senshi - or at least someone that could save them before the youma pulled down the whole fire escape on top of them.