Welcome to Gaia! ::

Donning her fuku had not caused the feared pangs of loss that Sailor Ares had anticipated. On the contrary, the Senshi of Smoke felt a swell of pride, and strength, as she stared at herself in the long mirror of the Crystal Academy community bathrooms. It was late, past curfew, which meant her night was just getting started.

Ares took one breath and then stepped closer to the mirror, then through it, and then reemerged in a seedy bathroom of the subway in downtown DC. It took moments, a much more effective form of transportation than running. The stalls caked with grease were empty, thankfully, as was the platform outside.

After a few minutes, the subway arrived, a whir of white noise and rushing metal. A homeless man was propped up against a newspaper case on the opposite wall. He gave the scantily clad teenager a passing glance, nothing more. The doors opened, and she stepped into the middle cart.

An older man pushed past her to exit the train. He started to say, "Hey, watch--" but then he got a look at her and shut his mouth. Living in Destiny City brought out a fair share of weirdos -- and the schoolgirl crimefighters were not exactly a secret. Sailor Ares shot him a glare, but then proceeded to the otherwise empty train.

Her nose wrinkled at the sight of the faded cream and orange seats, then again at the metal poles scattered across the space. In her day-to-day life, she almost never rode the subway. It was dirty, disorganized, and full of people -- three parts ick. That night, she wasn't on the train for transportation. This was a test, the kind she liked to do whenever she felt like her strength might be waning. Go out and fight a hard fight to win -- but win.

A hand slipped into side of her skirt (apparently she had pockets?) and pulled out a small travel-pack of antibacterial wipes. Ares pulled one free of the packet, shined up the nearest pole to her liking, and only then did she touch it.

Now she just needed something to fight.

Sailor Ares had not noticed the other senshi in the cart. Apparently she had been more distracted by the gruff civilian who exited the train than she realized. This bothered her. Deaths of her closest parallel family aside, Ares refused to entertain any distractions in her warrior life. It was below her skill level, her battle prowess. She was a commander who was forever battle-ready.

How had some ridiculous kid with awful frosted tips and a horrendous bright yellow waist ribbon escaped her keen attention?

The torrent of thoughts in her head did not reflect on her face. Ares simply raised her eyes to the unwelcome guest, let her gaze roam from his head to his toes impassively, and then wrinkled her nose and turned back around without so much as word. She had no business with some lackluster White Moon senshi (weren't they all?) who needed a little attention.

Instead, Sailor Ares maintained her battle stance facing the subway doors, her dreadfully short skirt lined with pink lace swaying ever so slightly with the movements of the train.

Sailor Ares pursed her lips and stared hard at the blurred lights flickering past the window. The expression reflected back in the smeared surface of the scratched plexiglass. Verbal sparring was not a war that Ares cared much for -- what were words but empty air where a brilliant logistical strategy could be?

Still, her world was upside down. For a girl who came through a mirror, the change felt monumental. Dead friends, her family from a time before, almost wholly snuffed out. Engaging in a little wordplay didn't seem like such a waste.

"Do I look like I'm in interested in a conversation with you?" She glanced over her shoulder at him. Her gray eyes read with determination, and perhaps something sad and hazy. "Or interested in you." Ares turned her head back to the subway doors as the train began to slow.

The metal of the track scraped in high whines that only grew louder. Her voice was barely audible, but if Sailor Chaonis listened closely, he would have heard the Senshi of Smoke's low, growling words: "I'm here to hunt."

This was not the first time Ares had been called a "b***h" and it certainly would not be her last. She tried to think of it as a badge of honor. Better to be a b***h than a pushover. Sailor Ares had never been good at being the nice girl type; she far preferred being the b***h.

It didn't make his saying it any less rude. The irony was also, apparently, lost on her.

When Chaonis slipped in his insult, Ares sighed again. "You have realized I'm a b***h, excellent. Now how about you take your own sage advice and leave me alone." Having a conversation with her back was probably not terribly interesting for Chaonis, but Ares didn't seem to care.

The door opened, and she let her hand slip from the pole. Her ears were pricked for sounds of something dark and ominous, but nothing came. After a moment, the doors shut, and Ares resumed her defensive stance.

In the back corner of the car closer to Sailor Chaonis, something stirred under a newspaper. Sailor Ares turned to look in that direction, but saw nothing. She turned back around.

Beneath the subway bench, something scuttled.

Oh god, he was one of those people who liked to get a rise out of others. It didn't take a combat strategist to see that. Still, Sailor Ares wasn't sure how to proceed. She had a mission on her mind, and a rogue sailor had not factored into her equation.

Before she could think of a snappy retort, Sailor Ares was distracted by the same thing that had snagged the other sailor's attention. Something was lurking. Ares could feel it like a tingling in her brain, a left over twinge from her time spent in Barren Pines.

Apparently, she didn't think it was worth warning Chaonis.

When he moved in to investigate, Ares slid back toward the other side of the cabin. No sooner had her boots begun to move that something else moved too. From beneath the seat, a black and white figure exploded forth, screeching at the top of its lungs.

It appeared to be a newspaper bat youma that, after taking one look at the two sailors, turned tail and shattered the plexiglass separating it from the next car full of civilians. It darted through the hole and made a quick dash for the easier prey.

When the newspaper bat youma careened off into the next cart, Sailor Ares immediately gave chase. She ran head long at the door and drew one leg up, kicking the metal door from its hinges. There wasn't enough space between the two cars for it to fall free so Ares had to go about forcing it out of the way.

It touched the concrete sides of the subway tunnel. The metal screeched and a flurry of sparks shot out, forcing Ares backward. She shot a hot glare at the other senshi. "I'm not yours to command," she hissed. Command, rank, title: it was all very important to Sailor Ares.

She turned back to front and gave the door another kick. It wedged between the side of the car and the tunnel wall, dragging an angry gash into the concrete. "Stay here," Ares barked, straddling the foot of space separating one subway car from the other. "You'll only get in my way." A woman screamed on the next cart. A man let out a wet chortle. A child started crying.

Ares wrenched open the door to the next car and disappeared into the fray.

Sailor Ares was not the kind to be impressed sitting around chatting about life, or going for a leisurely stroll. Her measure of a person's worth came on the battlefield, and only there. She could sometimes appreciate people who could command rooms even in casual situations. It was a trait of her Queen's that she had most respected. Chaonis had lacked in that, she thought, but perhaps he could prove himself to be more than a smart mouth when it counted most.

The senshi of smoke wasn't going to hold her breath for it.

Bursting into the next cart, Ares searched the area for the bat youma. Chaonis, to her own surprise, came charging right behind her. She flanked left for a better look, but was stopped in her tracks by a frantic woman swinging a purse. Ares caught it in her hand and threw it back into the empty subway car behind them. "Go fetch," she hissed. The woman took off, blubbering about kids these days and I told Danny I wanted to move away from here.

With one frantic person down, Ares tried to move toward the one that was actually being attacked. Chaonis didn't seem to have much luck either. "TO THE OTHER CART, CITIZENS," she commanded, her voice burning with misplaced rage. If another person shoved her, she was going to lose her mind.

Gray eyes flickered briefly to Chaonis. With a grunt, Ares reached above her head and laced both arms through the bent hand holds hanging from the ceiling of the cart. They wanted to clog up the aisle? Fine. She would go over them. Booted feet kicked up and hooked around the poles. It took some doing, but Ares began to shimmy and swing her way over the heads of the terrified civilians to the far side of the cart where the youma was making his attack.

An old man was redfaced and swatting at the youma with his briefcase. Long, jagged cuts covered his arms, and there was a particularly nasty gash on the side of his head. A woman around the same age was slumped next to him. Ares didn't have to see the glow in the youma's throat to know that it had already collected one starseed that night.

Unacceptable.

Kicking a leg out, Ares wrapped her ankles around what she assumed to be the throat of the youma and twisted. It sputtered and hissed, whipping its long newspaper tail and knocking two teenagers over. It managed to free itself of one of her legs, but the other held fast. Her hold on the bars that suspended her from the roof was shaky, but she took a risk and released one to flail toward the beast's mouth.

She could see the glowing tip of the starseed. If she could just... wham! The youma charged full speed at Ares, swallowing her arm in its gaping jaws. The impact knocked her off of her hanging perch and down onto the ground, narrowly avoiding a crying mother who clutched two children to her sides.

The impact sounded with a sickening snap. For a moment, Ares feared it had bitten her arm clean off. Her vision was hazy with spots, and she was on her back, certainly not a tactical advantage. With another kick, she threw the youma off of her.

Three things were immediately evident:

1) She had managed to keep a hold on the woman's starseed.
2) Her shoulder was gruesomely dislocated.
3) The youma was charging right back at her again.

Ares felt like she was doing more than her fair share of the lifesaving at this point in the battle. She hardly appreciated being told to "get the hell up" and "run" out of there. Her anger was pushed to the back burner as she struggled to her feet. Her arm hung limply from its socket, weakly clutching the starseed.

All around her, people filtered out of the car. There was a pole next to her. No use putting it off. The senshi of smoke gritted her teeth and then slammed her shoulder against it. She screamed, high and brittle, but there was no reassuring pop. It hadn't worked. Ares did this once more, and then once again, before the loud crack of bone jumping back into socket sounded in the car. Her grunt was muffled, but she was moving as if nothing had happened a moment later, the only sign of the excruciating pain left in the tensing of her brow.

Power and energy pulsated in her hand. She crossed quickly to the woman who was slumped beside her husband. In all her time, she hadn't had much experience returning starseeds to their bodies. Lucky for her, the starseed did most of the work for her. Glowing light filtered from the seed back to its host body, tiny tendrils of light and gleamed brighter as she drew closer. The moment her hand made contact with the woman's shirt, the starseed disappeared. Then the woman's eyes fluttered open.

Sailor Chaonis had the youma busy, a role Ares would rather play, but she shoved and pushed the man and his wife until both were safely off of the train. No sooner had they made it past the doors and the train began to move again. It would appear that the conductor was oblivious to what was going on in one of his middle cars.

In a flurry of windblown hair, Ares whipped around on the youma and the other sailor. Her hand was still gripping the arm that had been dislocated. It ached with every move she made, sharp, jagged pains that ricocheted through her elbow and down to her fingertips. "I don't run," she spat, fury leaking into her words.

Sailor Ares had no idea what this senshi's power was, or why he wanted her out. She only knew her own skills, and of those she was certain. As Chaonis pulled together his own power, so did Ares. Her hands drew together into a gun at her chest, and she began to summon her energies. "Hold your breath, caution tape!" she shouted.

As Chaonis summoned his energy, Ares began to unleash hers, shooting a column of churning, black smoke at the youma. It was a tight funnel, but the centripetal force kept the youma from escaping its parameters, even as tongues of choking smoke drifted to the ceiling, slowly filling the car. Sailor Ares had no idea what Chaonis was about to do, or what effect it would have.