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 Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 8:52 pm
Anthony Darrow was tired. Very tired. The day had been spent helping with repairs around the library. The building had not been open to the general public, after what had happened. The front desk had been decimated, and the walls, ceiling, floor and everything else had also suffered substantial collateral damage. It was just what happened when a girl with powers to control tentacles and a man with a sword fought a giant book worm inside a public library, he supposed.
Because that happened all the time.
Pulling on his coat, he sighed and rubbed his shoulder. Sore, but he hadn't felt the need to wear his sling and there was no new damage so it had to be on the road to healing. That was good, at least. He was almost getting used to wearing his coat over one shoulder, with only one arm in a sleeve. Grabbing his briefcase, stuffed with insurance papers and estimates for the repairs, he made sure everything was locked up for the night before heading out the front door.
His thoughts immediately turned to Virgo, and he wondered if she was out on patrol tonight. She always kept the library in her watch, after all, and they had run into each other a few times now. He liked having her walking him home, even if it did hurt his pride a little. It hurt less, though, when he reminded himself that she was super strong and he was liable to get eaten by monsters.
Plus, he liked to keep an eye on her. Maybe she didn't need him trying to protect her, but he would anyway. He had kind of helped against that tall monster thing, hadn't he? Almost. They just had to look out for each other, it seemed. Like family.
The thought made him smile a bit as he walked down the street under the night sky. He didn't have any real family, so it was kind of nice.
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 9:09 pm
Zinkenite’s eyes glittered just a little with satisfaction as he checked the time on the watch he’d stashed in his pocket and he checked off his note on the page before him in the note-book.
He glanced up and down the street holding up a hand for Scheelite to wait while he confirmed that other things, seemed clear, they wanted Virgo to see Scheelite, not him. That was an important detail that could not be ignored.
The one thing that worried him was that he had not yet seen Virgo.
She had, when he’d watched before traveled street level, and seemed to do so consistently.
This –was- going to work out… he had already determined the sureness of. Consistency was the key, and even Senshi could be creatures of Habit.
Once he was utterly sure, of Virgo’s reaction though, then the real fun would begin.
He glanced over at Scheelite and gave a nod to go down.
Now… now it would all start, she’d be here soon enough and they had to make this good
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 9:24 pm
Scheelite answered the nod with a silent salute and quickly made his way down to the street. His landing on the pavement below was silent (he'd been practicing!), but his boots did click on the street as he swiftly made his way up behind Anthony. Did he care? No, not really. What was a -librarian- going to do to fend off a Negaverser? Sheesh!
Though, in case the footsteps weren't enough, Scheelite called out to the other as he approached.
"Hey man! Long day huh? Gotta be hard, working in some silly library all day. Anything exciting happen? Not...that anything could really top what the hell happened before."
Here he whistled, as if amazed by the damage the library had clearly gone through. Zink had filled him in on that before.
"Whewww, had to be one hell of a fight, wouldn't you say?"
He was an oddball, but he wasn't attacking. Not yet, at least. That was good! But in a place like Destiny City could never be too careful when meeting strangers. Especially ones in odd raver-gear walking around with a giant blue plastic guitar strapped to their back.
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 9:34 pm
Tony, lost in thought, hadn't been expecting someone to come running up to him. Or if he had, he had been expecting something completely different. He jumped, then, at the male voice that greeted him abruptly, turning on his heels to see the strangely dressed young man walking up to him.
At first, Tony didn't notice the plastic guitar, a bit distracted by everything else. Did this guy just come from some club? The appropriately boring clothes of the librarian were a stark contrast, to be sure.
"What?" he asked, when he heard the words 'silly' and 'library' together. He couldn't help but take some offense, since he adored his job and his place of work. It was like calling him silly, directly. He looked down at his feet, not comfortable talking about the fight with someone who hadn't seen it. After promising Virgo he would be careful about what he knew of her, of everything, he felt like mentioning anything like monsters and senshi was dangerous.
"Y-yes, it was..." He looked around awkwardly, then frowned, "I ah, I have to go. I'm sorry." He backed away, not offering an excuse for why he was leaving. Why should he? He was obviously heading home after a day at work and a conversation on the street with a stranger didn't seem that appealing at the moment.
Still, he immediately felt guilty for being rude.
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 11:54 pm
She really, really wanted to talk to Tony. Very badly, very badly indeed; the library had been closed today and the books she had borrowed were still sitting in her backpack at the dorm but she wanted to read more, if only to have something to talk to the librarian about. But then the Princess had wanted to talk to her about something, and Virgo had given it her full attention and then she had gone, heels clicking across the sidewalk as she wandered one of her random paths to the library. That was where she always picked up her normal patrol route, and she always made it to the library just in time for closing. It was like a rule. If she broke the rule, the world would end, clearly.
Today something was a little off, though. She had a niggling feeling that something bad was going to happen--and it was proven right when she saw the brightly dressed young man talking to Mr. Darrow. Her hackles went up, just like that. Dark aura, right, not very strong but enough that she had no good feeling about this. The senshi of innocence leaned into a faster walk. "Hey, Mr. Darrow," she called, one hand around her mouth like a megaphone and a big smile on her face, though her eyes betrayed her worry. "Who's your friend?"
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Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 9:05 am
"You have to go? So soon? I just wanted to say hi and talk..."
Scheelite's lip stuck out in the form of a childish pout, and he took just enough steps towards Tony to counter the steps the librarian had taken back. Sheesh, really? He was being nice! Why did everyone try to run from him? Man, how rude.
Virgo's voice brought a grin back to Scheelite's face, and the lieutenant turned so he could try and keep an eye on both the retreating Tony and the approaching senshi. This should prove interesting.
"Just a random kid looking for someone to talk too, that's all! And you are?"
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Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 2:23 pm
Tony frowned, feeling worse now that the stranger had voiced protest. He had been hoping the other would understand the librarian's pressing need to get home. He was tired, and not thinking politely, selfishly just wanting to go home, make sure Booder had food, take a bath and then go to bed.
Missing the stranger's grin, Tony felt his spirits lift a bit when he heard Virgo's voice punctuate the awkward silence. He smiled and watched her approach, glad to see her.
"This is... ahh..." he didn't know the young man's name, but he cut in on his own behalf. And offered no new information on that front. Tony looked a bit embarrassed. He looked down and decided to let them introduce themselves to each other.
"I'm Anthony," he said at length, sheepish, "Darrow, I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself earlier... I was just trying to get home." He looked at Virgo and smiled. Hopefully she would come with him and they'd get back to their regular schedule.
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Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 6:59 pm
His eyes narrowed and he pulled the collar of his shirt as high as he could stretch it so he could draw closer to the edge of the roof exposing as little ‘light’ colors as possible.
He –really- wished he could have outfitted Demy with something that would pick up sound, but his best and affordable option would have been a walkie-talkie. And that would not only be obvious it would give him dead away.
He wondered quiet briefly if the negaverse had any kind of budget set aside for reconnaissance missions. Sadly he very much doubted it.
He noted the time hearing Virgo’s voice, close enough…close enough. It was good enough to work with.
The jury was still out though; did she not register what Scheelite was? True his uniform was less than strictly military, but then again there were others he considered other ‘uniforms’ far stranger than Scheelite’s by comparison.
Come on…come on… he willed them. He didn’t want Scheelite hurt mind you, but in the end didn’t that make Virgo that much more perfect of a target for this kind of information gathering? This had better work… it –had- to work he was so sure.
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Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 7:13 pm
She frowned, clenching her hands into fists. This close she could sense--practically feel--the dark aura; it felt gross against her skin, like it had every single time she'd encountered an agent of Charonite. "You're a liar," she said, "you're a Negaverser. You're an enemy." Her anger was palpable as she finally stopped near them--close enough she thought she could get between the blonde Negaverser and Tony if she had to. And she might have to, she thought.
"Leave him alone." It was an authoritative tone, something no one present would be expecting--but this was far more of an intrusion than she'd been expecting. "Or at least be honest about what you are so I can tell my Captain who I beat into the ground--I'm Sailor Virgo, and the name of the Princess, I'll destroy you. So please, won't you give up?"
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Posted: Sun May 09, 2010 6:18 am
"Excuse me?"
Scheelite's hands were on his hips, and a rather nasty glare was shot at Virgo. Still no attack, just a look of 'really? REALLY?'
"See now, this is the problem with you Senshi."
Hands were back in the air, mostly giving gestures here and there to aid his speech. Scheelite was a hyper sort of guy and needed to keep moving. For now it was a few harmless steps back and forth so he never really got anywhere. But he certainly could if he wanted to.
"You just show up, go off half cocked about some love and justice or whatever the hell it is you're going on about, and decide to beat me into the ground. Hey genius? I wasn't even doing anything. I don't even have my weapon, see?"
Scheelite spread out his arms showing he was in fact unarmed. He was still glaring over at Virgo though.
"I was just trying to -talk- to the guy. I'm allowed to do that you know, but here comes Miss Justice thinking she knows how to make the world such an awesome place! Wake up, is going around threatening people not doing anything really justice? I certainly don't make it a habit to go out of my way to threaten -you-."
Except that one time he had assisted in the murder of a senshi. ...That was different.
"But, you know, I'm a pretty reasonable guy. If you're so stuck on this stuff then how about I really give you a reason to be that way? Bet I can make it to him before you can."
He hadn't moved, not yet. But if she made any move to get closer to Tony he'd spring forward to race her.
"Lieutenant Scheelite, I play on expert mode. Care to play a game?"
The grin had returned to his face, but it was a good deal more predatory this time around.
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Posted: Sun May 09, 2010 8:46 am
Tony grew tense when Virgo's attitude changed. It wasn't cautiously curious any more: she seemed to have realized that this man was a danger, and now Tony was wondering just what he had stumbled into. Again. Though, to be fair, it felt rather like a set up. She said he was a negaverse... er... and thought Tony knew precious little about them he remembered Virgo telling him they were bad.
So he probably didn't want to be standing anywhere near one.
Taking an instinctive step back, he froze when the brightly dressed man started speaking. Tony looked surprised, not liking the idea of the bet at all, and thinking they could probably come up with a better arrangement than 'whoever gets to the squishy, rather weak human first wins'. Of course, he was certain Virgo could, but he didn't really want to play the chance at all.
"Maybe we could... settle this... a different way?" he ventured to say, feeling his feet backing up again. He looked at Virgo, though, and rooted himself in place. He couldn't go running off now, leaving her with this guy. He seemed dangerous, to say the least. All Tony could do at the moment was watch the two, nerves feeling frayed, hoping they could all just go on their way without any trouble.
But he doubted it.
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Posted: Sun May 09, 2010 10:28 am
How interesting, more than a few senshi he had observed had at least done lip service to serving a greater cause... professing that the Negaverse alone had any kind of selfish "Grey" morality.
But this one... no, she seemed to have given up even the slightest pretense.
//You are an enemy// oh yes... but was it that simple. What would you do little 'Virgo' if we could corrupt your Librarian right here and now. What about your fellow Zodiacs. THEN who would your 'self interested' morality protect. He wondered staring over the edge of the building.
Were they so different? He'd asked that of Sailor Lyra but not waited for an answer.
The thoughts would undoubtedly upset, and otherwise leave her running to friends to justify how she felt and why. It did in high school so why not here.
Protect your friends and destroy the enemy... no one ever asked what happened when you knew the enemy. With the pure number of Senshi and Negaverse agents, and the narrow age ranges, it was unlikely that you would NOT fight someone who you might otherwise know. He was 'blessed', except for Beth... and perhaps Kirin and Khalia... whom he had to admit were not the same as Demy and Beth... his friends were half accounted for. Beth was the only questionable one, but with her under his own roof, even if he wasn't there as much as he'd prefer he'd find out, or so he assumed.
No... she was the perfect target and getting more so by the minute...
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Posted: Sun May 09, 2010 3:11 pm
This Negaverse agent liked to talk. That was fine, it meant he was spending less attention on Tony while coming up with witty repartee. It gave her a moment or two to wonder why every single Negaverse agent she came across thought she was so interested in justice and peace and prosperity for all. All of that was nice, but in the end, Virgo wanted the safety of her friends and family.
Oh, and the destruction of the Negaverse and Chaos and--well. It was a destructive wish.
"He's the Negaverse, Mr. Darrow," said Virgo. She sounded preternaturally calm. Frightfully calm, considering that she was staring at Scheelite like he'd stomped on her kitten. And while he'd never done something to her and her own, she could not ignore the fact that he might have. Had he been the least bit apologetic, she would have responded with mercy; but he sounded proud, and pride in being a murderer was never appropriate. "He's bad. The Negaverse has to be destroyed--they've killed Zodiacs before, and that cannot be ignored."
That was as much warning as Scheelite got before Virgo launched herself forward--not towards Tony, but towards the Negaverse agent in view. "You're lucky--" she reached for the blonde Negaverser's collar "--that tonight isn't my night to patrol with the Princess--" and if she got the collar, she intended to follow through with her knee in his gut. Not vicious attacks by any means, but attacks meant to disable.
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Posted: Sun May 09, 2010 7:23 pm
He had been ready for a move towards this 'Mr. Darrow', and he definitely would have met it with a race. He wasn't, however, prepared for any sudden launch at himself. Really, in his mind he was behaving! Why on earth would she attack him?
Oh right, something about that whole exuding evil auras or whatever. Yeah, that probably had something to do with it.
Scheelite barely had time to utter a very confused "huh?!" before finding himself with a knee in his gut. This wasn't pleasant, not even in the slightest. The agent let out a sound reminiscent of air escaping from a tire and crumpled in Virgo's grasp. There was a small part of him thankful she didn't hit his ribs, but at the moment it was mostly covered up by the part wondering what in the holy effing hell had just happened.
For a moment maybe Virgo could have sensed a sudden wave of tension going through the Negaverser's muscles. Maybe he was gearing up for a counterattack? Maybe even to flee the situation? But almost as quick as it had come it was gone, and the boy offered no fight or even a struggle to escape. Instead he uselessly clutched at his stomach and put on a rather convincing display of injury. With as much time as he spent actually injured or in the hospital he was pretty good at faking that sort of reaction. He just hoped Zink didn't think it a -real- injury and come to the rescue. Scheelite wasn't quite ready to abort this mission, not yet at least.
"Y-you've got it all wrong!"
He gasped the words, tone slipping from someone high on their own ego trip to...well child like. He -was- just a young kid after all.
"I don't w-want to harm him, or you, or anyone. I d-didn't ask for this, didn't ask to be corrupted. I just wanna be a kid again you know? I'm tired of hurting people, tired of being stuck with nightmares over things I've done. It isn't something I ever wanted..."
Scheelite paused, coughing a bit. Whether it was for dramatics or an actual need to after that knee to the gut was anyone's guess.
"W-won't you please help me?"
Acid eyes were filled with pleading now, not a shred of the earlier arrogance left behind. Secretly he was still praying Zink figured this out and didn't send the smoke pellets flying. If he did...well Scheelite would run. And if this new plan didn't work he'd throw his own pellet and hightail it out of there. He had to be thankful his partner had thought ahead and given him one of the smoke pellets just in case.
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Posted: Sun May 09, 2010 7:38 pm
Tony was feeling very much out of his depth, like if he walked away now it wouldn't change anything. Yet for some reason he stayed, watching Virgo intently, not wanting anything to happen to her. She was dear to him, like a child or some kind of family member he hadn't been able to really have, so to leave her here in any shadow of danger was inconceivable.
Anyway, she said he was a Negaverse person, and that was enough to keep him rooted to the spot. He had never seen Virgo act like this, so resolved and intense, wanting nothing more than to attack this young man in bright clothes. She said Negaverse killed Zodiacs. She was a Zodiac, he remembered her telling him that.
There was no way he could leave her with this guy now.
And yet, when she attacked the younger man Tony stepped back in surprise, watching as he, Scheelite if Tony had heard him right, crumpled and grabbed his stomach in pain. The fight Tony was expecting to see erupt didn't happen.
"W-wait, Virgo!" Tony heard himself say, taking a step forward. The young man said he hadn't wanted any of this, so shouldn't that be enough to justify pausing the fight, pausing her clear anger just for a moment, to hear him out? Sometimes Tony's idea of heroism, of justice and fairness, was a little naive. But he couldn't see someone begging for help and not try to help them.
"M-maybe he's not evil?" The human offered rather helplessly, moving cautiously closer to the Lieutenant. Not too close, of course, but it was an effort to show he was trying to be fair and consider things.
Of course, he still had no idea what was going on, so his judgment wasn't the best.
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