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 Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2011 1:39 pm
As it often was the case, it was Taranis that contacted him first. And, in a way, Themis wasn't even sure why he accepted - probably because he knew the injury excuse wasn't going to fly.
The new words he had to use to power up were foreign, awkward on his lips. This was only the second time he powered up in three weeks, and the first where he actually intended to do something with himself. He arrived at the meeting point early, leaned against a nook in the wall, and waited. This was all the bad thing about all this white - even during the evening, he stood out, whereas before he had mostly blended in.
He wasn't sure he liked this.
He felt Taranis coming before he could see him - the energy signature much larger, and yet still completely familiar. It was that, paired with the actual sight of the other senshi, that made him wonder why the senshi of Sand even needed a patrol partner in the first place.
Had he been less apathetic, he might have cracked a buttwings joke.
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Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 9:27 am
Transitioning to his eternal power had been less of a jolt for Taranis than he had expected. Perhaps it was because he had filled himself from the start with the single-minded purpose of destroying Linarite. Now that he had tasted her blood, had seen her on the verge of death -- now what? For the first time in a long time, he felt aimless.
It was perhaps with that in mind that he arranged a patrol between himself and one of the only other senshi he had heard of that evolved just as quickly as he had. One month. That was all it took him, and that was all it took the now Super Sailor Themis.
The buttwings wiggled behind him as he walked. "Don't crack any jokes about the wings, man," he said, strolling up. Apparently he could read minds? Either that, or he had already been the victim of enough jokes to deal with it. "One day, you too will enjoy the Precious Moments wings attached to your a**." He cocked a grin. Why shouldn't he? Taranis was usually sullen, but he had defeated a General on his own -- and hey, he sort of liked Themis.
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Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 9:38 am
"As long as no jokes are being made about falling in a vat of bleach." Was the answer. It lacked... well, it lacked something that was usually within the senshi of Noise. Energy, perhaps ?
Though the reason why was more evident when he did step out of his hiding place. He had all but fallen in a vat of bleach.
"There was another fight." He said, softly. "We won this time. Or so I heard." He hadn't gone back to Elysion since the night after the first fight, where he had sat with Chloe on the edge of the corrupted field claimed by the Negaverse. He hadn't returned to the Dream Realm willingly, only when he accidentally got there.
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Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 10:00 am
Elysion had been a mystery to Taranis. Like all the others, he experienced sleepless nights and bouts of anxiety each time he closed his eyes. Most nights, he fought in small skirmishes, or just wandered through fields with friends, Magellan even. He had not present at the last battle because he had not slept that night. He couldn't. The vision of Linarite's bloodied body filled his brain. He thought it would bring him joy, but he only felt horror -- horror that he was capable of doing such evil to another person.
Taranis began walking down the street, beginning the first leg of their patrol cycle. "I heard we won too," he said. "But I'm not sure what that means. Did you hear? There are rock monsters now. I haven't had the pleasure of meeting one myself, but... rock monsters." He laughed. "DC never ceases to amaze me."
Cerulean eyes strayed to Themis. "Nice outfit," Taranis said, gesturing to the new fuku. "I don't think I got the opportunity to properly congratulate you, Super Sailor Themis."
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Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 10:11 am
Themis stepped in sync quite easily, and was able to keep up rather easily - he was mostly healed by now, thankfully. "I heard things about flying monsters, too." Themis shook his head. "I haven't ran into any of them yet."
Mostly because he'd done jack s**t.
Each time he was congratulated on his power-up, it was the same awkwardness that rushed right though him each time. "Ah... thanks." He still wasn't quite certain he deserved it. He'd gotten beaten the hell up, almost died... In fact, if Chloe hadn't been here, he was quite certain that he would have been done in right there and then.
Overall, he didn't feel very super.
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Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 10:28 am
"I did," Taranis said. "Two weeks ago. I thought it was some new brand of youma, but it died from a punch. A single punch." He shrugged. "I only wish all youma could be so easy to kill."
The two senshi reached the end of the road and took the turn, bending down a dark alley. Themis seemed much more sullen than usual. Normally, it was the sort of thing that Taranis would ignore, but since he was hoping just to completely avoid his own problems, he decided to key into what was troubling the Senshi of Noise.
"Something wrong, Themis?" he asked. "You're being... quiet. Well, quieter."
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Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 10:47 am
"They are that weak ?" Themis seemed surprised. "That's... odd." It really was. Unusually youma had to at least be able to withstand some beating by design.
He did completely stop at that question. What to answer to that ? Should he, even ? It was... well, a tender subject.
"Just... a lot of things gone wrong." He managed. "Kind of all put together, you know ?" He wouldn't talk about Bell. He had promised, and even if he hadn't, it wasn't his place to do so. Lily was still a somewhat tender subject, through they were slowly working toward resolution. The fight with his mother, well... She hadn't tried to call since then, and he wasn't sure if he actually wanted her to, or not.
"I almost died." He said. "In Elysion. A lieutenant. She hit me, I hit her back... it went down from there. She got the upper hand and was about to impale me with her lantern when the cat came."
He shook his head again. "I don't think I deserve this."
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Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 1:20 pm
The winged creatures and the rock ones went down easily. Taranis had seen civilians kill them. He even read a story in the news about a twelve year old who defeated one with a trash can lid after it grabbed his dog. As far as he was concerned, they should just leave the civilians to deal with them. There were plenty of other problems in Destiny City.
Or Elysion, as it were.
Taranis nodded slowly as Themis spoke, keeping his eyes on the road ahead. "Was that your first?" he asked. "Your first near-death experience, I mean." He ignored the bit about 'deserving' for now.
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Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 1:34 pm
Themis had to actually think about that one, though he'd started walked again to keep up with the Senshi of Sand. "I guess technically it was the second time." He finally said. "They could have gotten me at Halloween after I hit the wall and passed out, but my..." He almost said girlfriend out of reflex. "teammate found me unconcious under a table." That was different. He hadn't been awake. He hadn't felt the terror he had felt, hadn't seen the hate in his opponent's eyes.
And he wasn't even getting into seeing the same agent that had broken his arm wailing on Bellatrix in Elysion. And how if he hadn't lost her, he might very well have killed her. One thing at the time.
"...Elysion was different. I was awake, she had me pinned down, her boot drilling in my chest, she pretty much made me her b***h and was just about to stab me though the heart when Chloe came... It was like staring at death itself and I didn't have anything left in me to do anything about it."
He knew he was talking too much, revealing too much, but it was like that once he'd started, he couldn't stop.
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Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 3:00 pm
Taranis nodded slowly. "Twice," he said. "Not bad. I think I'd had about three or four at your level, but then again, I was never a very good senshi at the start. I thought patrolling alone was for the best. I thought being alone was for the best." He laughed. For all his awkwardness, Taranis was trying to put Themis at ease. There were enough people waiting to beat up the senshi. They didn't need to do it to themselves too.
"Themis, near-death experiences are part of the territory. We just have to make sure we learn from them so that next time they aren't so near or death." Up ahead, there was a shaded park. The Senshi of Sand led them toward the darkness. "I once watched a Nega snap the neck of a senshi right in front of me. My girlfriend, actually. She was able to sneak up on us because I was too busy flirting with her to remember to properly monitor my perimeter."
He thought back to that terrible night so long ago. A part of him died back then. He was still trying to put together the pieces. "Now, even though you and I are talking, I can tell you that there is no Nega within sensing range of us. I can tell you that there are two cats in that alley over there. I can tell you that there is a homeless man propped up against the bench at the center of the park." Taranis stepped over a curb onto the grass. "I learned to be better because I had to be better."
There was a lull in the conversation. "My girlfriend wasn't dead, it turned out. Magellan, if you know her. But I won't take that chance again." He hoped that something he was saying put Themis at ease. Taranis had always liked the Senshi of Noise. He was not sure why, but he did. It allowed him to be more candid than he was accustomed to.
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Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 3:55 pm
Themis listened, silently. Sometimes it seemed like he was about to say something, but nothing came out. What was he supposed to say to that ? That was really a whole lot of information.
"I don't think I've ever met her." He admitted, after the Senshi of Sand was done. At least, he didn't remember the name Magellan. He might have seen her in a meeting, or somewhere else. "I was lucky, I guess. Europa and I have known each other since we were 3." Taranis would remember Europa, he was certain. "We're kind of like siblings, only not. She figured out I was a senshi not too long after I was awakened... I was pulled in her team not long after that. Im not too sure how she hid the fact she was a senshi from me for a year. I guess I was too busy with senior year to notice the little signs, though... It's probably one of those things that look obvious in retrospect." Themis had, indeed, been pretty lucky. He had always had a support system - he'd always had a network to fall back onto.
If he hadn't, well, he would have probably done the very things Taranis spoke about. He did sometime patrol alone, even though he knew it was both unsafe and unwise.
And he'd always had Bellatrix to fall apart onto, though right now he did not dare, not with her own issues. If Taranis had been keeping attention at the meetings, he had most likely noticed that Themis and the senshi of Fortitude were more than simple teammates. They always stood one next to the other, hand in hand, as if trying to simultaneously shield each other from the terror they knew lurked in the dark.
Themis had been about to go deeper about his own personal questions, on how to be sure that they were actually doing the right thing by being here, when something happened. He wasn't quite as aware of his surroundings as the eternal senshi was, focused on the conversation as he was - Themis had, however, always been a feeler, which was exactly why he tensed immediately when a corrupted aura entered their range. Not a strong one, so...
"Youma." He blinked. "North-east. It's coming toward us." Damn. Well, it wasn't like an eternal senshi would struggle with a youma, right ?
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Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 5:25 pm
Taranis didn't make it a habit of introducing Magellan to the senshi that he trained. It wasn't that he hid her away. It just seemed like mixing work and pleasure. Besides, she had a way of making him lose his hard edge and professional exterior. He didn't need other senshi seeing that. But Themis? Well... perhaps he should introduce Magellan to him. Taranis had come to put a lot of faith in the Senshi of Noise's potential.
"You never assume the people around you are senshi," he said. "I don't. I used to worry about it, went half-crazy suspecting random people: my mailman, a girl who bumped me on the sidewalk, this guy at the internet cafe. At some point, I just... stopped. There are so few of us compared to the number of people in DC."
He picked a leaf from a nearby bush and crumbled it between his fingers, pinched it. "The Basterds, right?" Working on the database had gotten him much more familiar with Europa.
All the pleasantries stopped when a youma was afoot. "I'll go left and high for the ambush. Draw it out to you," he said, taking off at a jog into the darkness. There was the sound, rustling in the trees, and then silence. Apparently Taranis wasn't going to give more detail than that.
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Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 5:42 pm
...He had to admit that Taranis was right on that aspect. He hadn't suspected Bell to be a senshi, and all the clues had been laid out in front of him, as well as the knowledge.
All that was put aside, however. At least for the time being. Taranis all but vanished into what he could only assume to be a tree, and Themis was left confused for a split second.
Oh.
Alright then.
This might be more complicated that he'd initially thought. Had he not be so caught up in his own misery, it might have occurred to him that a youma probably wasn't going to be hard work.
At the moment, however, Sailor Themis wasn't quite sure he could squash a fly.
Draw it out... Away from the civilian, if at all possible... Well. Themis went ahead to send the youma it's greetings, so to speak, crouching to grap a rock to throw at the offending creature.
Out came a screech that was definitively arachnid.
Damnit, why was it always the god damn spiders ?
It worked just fine, though - he had the youma's attention, and he lured it deeper into the wooden area, toward Taranis' location.
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Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2011 5:26 pm
From high above, Taranis watched as the spider youma scampered into his line of sight, running straight toward Themis. The senshi waited until the thing was directly under him and then he said, "Taranis Mud Blast!" A ball of sand formed on his fingertips and darkened.
Taranis launched the ball. It was sailing right for the youma's head. In a flash, the spider turned and launched a web, catching the mud ball in its filmy grasp and diffusing it into a flurry of wet sand before it could strike. "Themis, I missed!" he called, swinging from one tree branch to another higher up.
The spider youma hissed and then fired another web. The senshi dodged it, but only just. The swerve caused him to lose his balance. One hand gripped a tree branch, and Taranis dangled there like a strange pinata. The youma was right beneath him. It fired a web, gluing Taranis and his leg to the tree branch.
"Give me a hand over here?" he said, flipping on top of the branch and yanking at the spider web coating his ankle.
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Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2011 5:52 pm
Still not quite going as planned. Not that he had much of a plan, though whatever it was, he was certain it didn't involve Taranis web-glued to a tree.
The spider youma went for another clear shot at it's hindered prey, but Themis punched it just in time to deviate the web - it shot and hit the trunk instead. Now that the monster's attention was on Themis, Taranis would have a clear shot at freeing himself.
Themis was next to get web shot at, but he was able to dodge, sliding out of the way and landing a kick right where one of it's legs joined with it's body, nearly ripping it off in the process. Well, this was... new.
That moment of wonder was enough for the youma to latch on his arm, through, biting right on a stitch - Themis had to bite his lip to keep himself from screaming. A solid punch with his other arm was enough to get the beast to let go, and Themis backed a few paces trying to put some distance while still luring the monster away from his teammate.
It looked like he was planning to use his attack, but which one would it be ?
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