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Xavier was acting weird, whether he denied it or not. Frankly, Tallulah was a bit miffed at his constant assurances of just how fine he was - shouldn't he know she knew him better than that? Furthermore, she was a senshi and a police procedural buff - it wasn't like she didn't know all the signs of wrong doing. Either her friend was having girl trouble, or else he'd killed someone.

"I could go for something," she nodded, steeling herself with nonchalantness and idle conversation. It didn't do to jump to conclusions, even if she was presently aiming for olympic gold in the sport. "How about TGI Thaidays?" she suggested. Americanized asian food was always a safe bet, even if it was from a place that had sushi, pad thai, and General Tsao's chicken all on one menu.

"But seriously, Zay," she added, leveling her gaze at him. She was unable to hold off from conclusion jumping any longer. It had to be said. "Who did you get pregnant, and where did you hide the body?"

This had come out wrong. Tallulah frowned at her grammar.

Tallulah had, at this point in time, been a vegetarian for something verging on thirteen years and was thoroughly experienced at ordering around meat. Asian places were easiest, though, because they usually didn't hold it against you if you asked to sub tofu. She studied Xavier for a few more moments, and then, recalling the wave of nightmares during the previous school year, struggled to remember her own dreams from the night before. They'd been ordinary.

She sighed. "If you say so," said Tallulah, slightly begrudgingly, but didn't bring it up again all the way to the restaurant. She wasn't quite sure she believed him, but if it was just a dream... well, she could understand being significantly rattled by a dream.

"It wasn't like those nightmares everyone was having back in April and May, right?" she asked as they sat down, just as a precaution. She couldn't see how they would have been, if everyone hadn't had them as well. (This reminded her that she hadn't ever figured out what caused those... It would have to be a mystery for another day.)

"Should we split some spring rolls?"

Tallulah saw it, too. She tried to hide her sudden shift in attention by holding up her menu, but couldn't disguise that her eyes were drawn to the rustling in the trash can. Health codes being what they were, she sincerely doubted it was a rat.

It was like Valentines at Apollo's all over again, like the farmer's market part two. She needed civilians out, and that included Xavier, and she needed a distraction, or else just somewhere to run off to and transform. It was a pity phone booths were so out of style.

"Go ahead and order," she said, trying to think fast (never her strong suit). "I've got to run to the restroom."

She put the menu down and got to her feet, ready to make a speedy escape.

She really felt bad about leaving Xavier to figure out what was going on on his own like that, but this was a job for a senshi. Barring any other patrons hiding henshin pens on their person, Tallulah was going to have to be that senshi. She slid the latch of the handicapped stall shut behind her and dug through her bag for a moment before finding her pen.

The light steel blue pen seemed to fit naturally in her hand after almost a year, and raising it over her head and exclaiming "Europa Moon Power, Make up!" came as naturally as spelling her own name.

Anyone paying close attention to the bathroom door would have noticed a different girl had gone in than come out, but they would have never realized that the schoolgirl and the senshi were the same person.

In the few minutes it had taken her to transform, the situation had worsened considerably, realized Europa. The youma had knocked the trash can over and slithered out of it, and seemed to be growing in size. Panic had begun.

"Please!" exclaimed Europa, vaulting over an empty table and taking center stage. "Remain calm and proceed to the nearest exit! I have everything under control!"

And then she realized the creature had gotten a noodly appendage wrapped around her ankle just in time to know what was happening as it yanked her foot out from under her.

"Oof!" cried Europa as she landed on her back and kicked at the tentacle wrapped around her leg.

Once she gathered her wits about her again, Europa was able to disentangle herself from the creature easily enough. And just in time, too, because it had changed targets once more - now it was going after the newly-arrived boy in the dark coat! This made Europa hesitate - the black coat seemed to suggest a lieutenant, but in that case it didn't make sense for the youma to be attacking him.

White bodice, sailor collar she reminded herself, and a moment's more examination revealed both, and a tiara. No doubt about it, another senshi had come to her aid! Just her luck! The scared little girl had made a break for it once the monster was distracted, and Europa sized up the situation. Could she justify pitch darkness in a space like this, especially with another senshi present?

She thought she could. She ran for the creature, ready to call her attack and kick its face in in one smooth motion. "It's about to get dark!" she called to the other scout. "Europa deep ocean blackout!"

The lo mein monster froze in its tracks, and a split second later someone turned out all the lights, and a split second after that, Europa began to emit a ghostly blue glow.

Her kick connected and she bounced off. The monster struggled against the pressure of her attack, but beyond that seemed sort of unphased for the moment. Europa readied herself to try again.

The particularly unfortunate thing about her super attack was that the pressure wore off before the dark, and so there were a good thirty or forty seconds where the Youma was blind but unfettered and more than capable of causing damage - like, for example, hoisting people in the air by their feet while you tried to avoid a similar fate.

"Bad dog!" yelled Europa, planting another kick and bouncing off the rubbery noodles. "Drop it!"

This Youma would have flunked out of obedience school if given the chance. Instead of listening, it flailed towards the girl with its tentacles but kept the senshi hoisted aloft while Europa tried to land hits. She managed to land what she thought of as a few good ones, but not without taking an enormous noodle or two to the gut.

"Ugh," she grunted, aiming a kick at the base of the tentacle that held Themis aloft. It was probably the best hit she'd managed so far, which was good for her, but not so good for him, because the youma let go and sent him flying.

And then the lights came back on.

Europa, hands clamped over her ears, first sought to get the thing to stop writhing - she couldn't get anywhere near it as long as it kept flailing about. "Europa deep ocean pressure!" she cried, and the youma became visibly subdued, fighting against the attacks still but weakening in its struggle.

She stood a chance at destroying it now, thought Europa, lunging forward, foot outstretched. Her bound connected with the central mass, sending a rippling shockwave out across the wriggling noodles.

Europa landed on the other side and glanced back, just in time to see the noodle-monster tense for a second, and then explode into a rain of glutenous globs that, after a moment, began to sizzle and melt away into the air, leaving behind a faint odor of teriyaki sauce and not much else.

"Well," she said, glancing over at Themis. "I think that went as well as could possibly be hoped for."