[B] Lesson 1. Yoma hurt

[TheMadHatter]

Lantern held in a white knuckled death grip he ran through the back alley's of the city like the hounds of hell were after him. Which given the circumstances wasn't all that bad of a description. He could hear the, thing, running after him as he darted between buildings into an alley. He'd read the news paper articles about strange monsters and the people in weird clothes running around but he hadn't expected to -meet- one. The monster that was. He was pretty sure he qualified as one of the 'people in weird clothes'.

He'd done this before. Transformed into whatever this was, god why hadn't that cat-thing explained better, but he'd never run into whatever this thing was. It didn't help that when he'd walked around the corner and come face to face with it the thing seemed to decide he was lunch, dinner, whatever. He had no idea what to do about something like that. He hadn't even been told what transforming was really about or for. So he'd run for it. He hadn't expected something so ugly to be able to run so fast around city streets. Weren't things like that suppose to be better at running in open space? Corners should have given it pause but the monster had just kept on going.

As he tried to run around another corner he felt something catch his ankle and with a rather undignified squawk he landed hard on the pavement, lantern clattering against the cement as his hands shot out to catch himself. Yanking with one leg and kicking with the other he tried to roll over. It was a bad idea. Now instead of running from an unknown terror he was starring at said terror eye to eye.

"Oh god...."  

[Nuxaz]

Sailor Denebola was no stranger to the terrors and monsters that lurked in the dark of the night in Destiny City. She hadn't been a senshi long, maybe a few month, but she was a fast learner and with the help of some seasoned senshi she was turning into a good solider. Which was exactly why she was out and about despite the fact she had gotten her a** handed to her a couple of weeks back.

The senshi of dragonflies wasn't one to let something like that keep her down and out for long.

It had taught her a lesson however and as a result she kept away from park for the most part. She certainly didn't want to run into that negaverse captain again. As a result she was keeping to the dark alley's of the city when she felt that soft, warm pulse of another senshi in the area. It was weaker that when she had felt the pulse of Super Sailor Taranis. What left her alarm was the darker pulse of a youma heading straight for the senshi's pulse.

She broke into a run and arrive on scene to see a large hound-like monster with a split tail, two extra legs, and thumb-like appendages grabbing at, what seemed to be terrified, senshi with no idea what to do. She understood that feeling too well.

"Hey ugly!" She called coming up behind it's back and grabbing a hold of it's tails. When it looked at her she yanked hard, determined to pull that sucker off of the other senshi. "Didn't anyone tell you playing with your food is bad?" She gritted her teeth as she swung it sideways.  

[TheMadHatter]

His eyes widened as he saw someone grab the monster by the tail. He hadn't expected to run into someone like himself, mostly he'd expected to become a smear on the sidewalk, and he was stuck for a moment wondering if whoever that was had a death wish.

That thought went out the window as the creature turned it's attention from him for a moment and his ankle was released. Scrambling up, ignoring the scrapes to his hands and legs, he grabbed his lantern and plastered himself against the alley wall for support. That was a bit of a bad choice as a moment later the monster crashed into the wall as the girl threw it.

Cursing he ducked the monster trying to make a grab at him again and ran for the safety of putting the girl between him and the monster. She at least looked like she knew what she was doing, or had a death wish, and he wasn't sure he wouldn't let her fulfill that wish if it meant he could get away.

The lantern in his hand seemed to flicker brighter as the yoma shook itself out and stood up again, tail lashing behind it as it eyed the two senshi before it.  

[Nuxaz]

Denebola frowned as she released her grip on the creature's tail, letting it fly into the wall, when she saw that the senshi she had helped had made the mistake of pressing himself against said wall. Luckily the kid had been smart enough to duck and try to get out of the way. As he skittered behind her she glanced at him with her two-colored eyes.

"You okay?" she asked concern flickering across her features for a brief minute before looking back at the beast as it began to advance forward. She shook her head and raised her fists preparing for another attack. As the monster lunged forward she swung a punch effectively hitting it in the nose sending it backwards. Unfortunately for the pair that only made it angrier and instead of attacking the girl it crouched low and sprung towards the lantern wielder.

Her eyes widened and she sprung forward as well hoping to shove the boy away. "Can't that lantern of yours do anything?" She asked spinning around. She never thought she'd have to defend another senshi before.  

[TheMadHatter]

He almost snapped at her stupid question. Was he okay. Did he -look- okay? If the scrapes on his hands didn't heal before he saw Cordi again he'd have to find some way to explain how he got them. He wasn't generally clutzy enough to just trip over his own feet. "Im fine." Technically a lie but bitching about how much his hands and his legs stung wouldn't get them anywhere.

As the creature lunged for him he swung the lantern and the cast iron rattled as it hit the creature square in the jaw. It didn't seem to do much damage but at least the creature was stopped in it's tracks and he wasn't missing a limb or whatever else the thing could have wanted to go for.

"Of course it can ... but it's a little hard to do anything with some dogthing trying to eat your face" He'd played with the lantern before and he knew it could do -something- he just wasn't sure what it would do against the creature.  

[Nuxaz]

Okay so asking him if he was fine probably hadn't been the best choice of words because he had been in a rather, precarious situation and probably had suffered some damage but she had meant if he was okay overall, which he seemed to understand. That was a good sign.

She watched as he batted the monster away with his lantern and nodded in approval. Her gaze moved from him to the hound as it seemed to rub it's jaw tenderly. It did not sit well with the creature as it seemed to be glaring up at them. She sighed running a hand through her hair, this bad boy didn't want to stay down.

"I can keep it distracted while you figure out whatever it does, who knows maybe it can dust the hound," she stated cracking her knuckles as she prepare to grapple with the beast again. "Hard hits and punches probably aren't going to do this guy in," she frowned shaking her head as she stepped forward. "I'll make sure it doesn't touch you," she told him glancing briefly at him.

She looked forward just as the hound lunged at them, thumbed paws grabbing at her face, catching the flower on her headband and ripping it off as she caught it's other arms and started to force it backward.  

[TheMadHatter]

Last time he'd done anything with the lantern it hadn't seemed to do much but he -had- aimed it at a wall that time. Maybe it would work better against a monster if that's what he was suppose to be fighting with it.

"Should have come with instructions." he muttered to himself as he sidestepped the monster and the girl as they grappled. He pulled a tinder stick out of the cord he had wrapped around his waist before opening the little door of the lantern. The flame flickered eagerly and seemed to jump from the lantern's wick to the bit of tinder.

Letting the stick burn for a moment he watched the monster take another swipe at the girl. "You have to keep it sorta still ... and this might hit you too."

He wasn't really going to be sorry if it hit her since there wasn't anything he could do about it but he should at least warn her. He waited until the two seemed to be in a deadlock for a moment before he blew the flame from the stick.

The flame itself crackled and split into three smaller tongues of fire before floating quickly toward the monster. With the creature held still the flames easily impacted it's sides leaving small scorch marks and causing the creature to howl.  

[Nuxaz]

Denebola had accidentally let one of the creatures forearms loose and it took advantage of the situation as it smacked her smartly across the face. Irritated she slammed the palm of her hand into it's face connecting with it's nose first before the tips of her nails scratched at it's eyes. Moving quickly, before it could react, she grabbed a hold of what she could consider it's wrist and locked it with it's other arm, just in case she needed a free hand to grapple with the remaining two arms.

s**t, this was harder than she though.

Wait what? His attack might hit her? Uh-uh, that was not going to be okay and she was going to voice such opinions when she realized that it probably couldn't be helped. Some attacks were just out of hand once they were released, that's what Sailor Gunn had showed her.

She did her best to keep both the monster and herself still. When the boy's attack successfully hit leaving the creature howling in pain she released it and backed up a few steps. "Almost," she muttered rolling her shoulders back, might as well use her powered attack, maybe it would create enough force to finally dust the baddie. She backed up more trying to give herself enough room to use it successfully. "Flight of the dragonflies," she muttered darting forward at a speed not normally humanly possible pulling back a fist as she jumped and slammed it down on it's back.

It shuttered beneath her and she thought the finally had it but she was wrong. Instead it bucked slight and threw her off. Slamming into the wall she groaned. She pulled herself up and swung a kick at it hoping that one last blow was all it needed to be finally dust. This thing was tough!

As her foot connected with the dogbeast's side it exploded in a flurry of dust. "Bout time," she grumbled.  

[TheMadHatter]

He watched the creature howl and watched whatever it was that the girl had done, it reminded him of the Flash in a way, with wide eyes. He had to depend on his lamp to do things but she could do it physically. Somehow that was in a way not fair but as the thought crossed his mind his fingers tightened around the handle of the lantern.

When the creature crumbled to dust he stared at the pile of powder for a moment before the pain of the scrapes to his hands and legs caught up to him. Hissing he loosened his hold on the lantern so he could see what had actually been done. His palms looked like he'd played with a cheese grater.

Looking up, trying to ignore the stinging pain he eyed the girl. "Is it gone?" Could something that big just turn to powder like that? "What -was- that?"  

[Nuxaz]

Denebola found herself coughing as the dust shifted towards her and blew into her face before it settled on the ground. She rubbed it out of her face as best as she could, then dusted her uniform off. Picking up the fallen flower she sighed and tossed it into a trash can that surprisingly had not been knocked over during the brawl.

It didn't matter, she told herself, because it will fix itself the next time she henshied up. Something she had learned after her bloody brawl with the chain wielding captain. Various parts of her uniform had been shredded but the next time she powered up everything had been perfectly fine, there wasn't a scratch on it. It had surprised her.

She moved forward, crouching down, as she ran a gloved hand through the dust looking for a starseed, anything that would let her know if there was a civilian somewhere about to perish without it. Finding nothing she let out a breath of relief, good no one had really been hurt.

"It's gone, been dusted," she confirmed looking up at him, pressing her hand against the ground to keep her steady. "That was a youma," she began pushing herself to her feet. "It's a monster created by the negaverse in order to create havoc, kill people and devour starseeds which are a person's life force," she explained wiping her hand on her skirt.

She stuck out to him a small grin on her lips, "Sailor Denebola at your service, lucky I came around when I did or you might've been the dusted one."  

[TheMadHatter]

He watched her poke around in the dust and almost sneered. That dust looked sticky -and- it was in god knows what in an alley. He couldn't imagine what would possess someone to go poking around in it.

"A what created by who to steal what?" That whole sentence hadn't made sense at all. Youma sounded like something out of a fairy tale and come to think of it so did 'negaverse' and 'starseeds'. He was pretty sure those words could be found in those games that his room mate played. His eyes slid to the dust streaks she'd gotten on her skirt and tsked softly. He was probably covered in dirt too and that wasn't an pleasant thought.

"Arsinoe...."  

[Nuxaz]

"A youma," she repeated dropping her hand when it was clear that the wasn't going to shake it. Oh well. "It's a monster, they're always different. Never seen the same youma twice," she explained thoughtfully. She tapped her chin with her clean hand as she tried to figure out how to explain the negaverse. "Basically the negaverse are the bad guys, trying to take over the earth and all that fun stuff," she told him with a nod. "They go around killing people for their queen. "

She started to walk forward and gestured for him to follow her. "We better not stay in one place, it'll make it easier for someone, or something, to find us if we're stationary," she explained. "As for a starseed....think of a person's heart, it's like that only it's deeper in the person than a heart. It's something that cannot be reached by normal means. An agent of the negaverse can stick their hand in your chest and rip it out," she sighed thinking of the moment when she almost had a captain's hand sticking into her chest. She had narrowly escaped then.

"You don't want that," she stated solemnly. "Losing your starseed means you're as good as dead unless someone can get it back for you in time."  

[TheMadHatter]

Well at least he had been right about the thing that was chasing him being a monster. That would make things easier if he ran into another one. Monsters were easy to kill. They didn't belong alive. The negaverse was a different story though. That sounded like trouble on a whole new level.

"So the negaverse takes these seeds and does what with them? There has to be a point in taking them right?" Otherwise they wouldn't steal them would they? Unless they were just a group of serial killers and that was just a -little- too creepy.

Why couldn't they just take the negaversers starseeds then too for that matter? If it killed you to not have one then taking those peoples would solve a lot of problems  

[Nuxaz]

Denebola started walking again, dual colored eyes sweeping across the path that laid before them. One could never be too cautious. "Keep close okay?" She instructed keeping to the shadows, one hand running against the wall. As he asked her what the enemy did with their stolen loot she shrugged.

"Honestly? I don't know what they do, it probably has to do with some energy thing. I think it helps make them stronger, gives them power." She shook her head because she didn't know how much of her words were facts. She didn't know much about the negaverse except that they were the bad guys trying to take over the world. "I don't know much about the negaverse really," she shrugged again.

"I'm also not sure how they get access to the starseed either," she sighed her brow creasing with concentration. "I think it has to do with however they're corrupted, because that's what they are," she nodded. "Corrupted people with corrupted starseeds," she stated confidently, that was something she was sure of. Something she had been told but had also learned for herself.  

[TheMadHatter]

He thought about that for a moment. Corrupted starseeds, if what she was saying was the truth, sounded like a bad thing. "So, why not just take their starseed away? Or fix the corruption." The Cat who had awoken him had said something about Sailor scouts protecting the world from evil like that. He hadn't believed her at the time but it was slowly making sense. There were more like him and there was something for them to fight.

If they were corrupted, which meant they'd been normal before, then there had to be a way to uncorrupt them. It would make sense. If there were others like them around they should be trying to figure out how to do that