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Click, click, click, click...

Heels swiftly met pavement and parted just as quickly as a senshi in crimson darted across the street. She was tailing a youma, one she'd managed to give one or two quick kicks to before it shrieked and began to run. She'd chased it several blocks to a nearby shopping district, thankfully sparsely populated this late at night. Kallichore's gray hair blew in the wind as she chucked another rock in the youma's direction. It uttered a garbled response and tore off to the top of one of the tallest buildings in the area. Kallichore leaped from her position across the street and clamored to find a way to scale the building - she couldn't leap that high. Scouting around, she spotted a fire escape and started to ascend, breath and heart pounding in her ears. She couldn't bear to think what may happen if the creature found an innocent civilian - she'd had enough of that kind of experience during her awakening by one Sailor Albali. She didn't want anyone else going through what she did, unawakened senshi or otherwise.

The youma seemed to be proud of itself, standing atop the apartment building, raising its many arms into the sky in triumph. It resembled a spider with humanlike arms serving as its legs, and it was fairly large for what it was supposed to look like. It had gray, sickly looking skin and as Kallichore reached the top, it turned to hiss at her like an angry cobra. The newbie senshi was winded, but she learned to count on adrenaline when it was needed most. She would suffer in the morning, but she thanked the stars it was a Friday night and she could sleep in. She'd only damaged it through kicks and punches since she couldn't use her attack but once. Cornering it on such a tall building was probably not the best idea considering her attack was nothing more than a distraction. But Kallichore couldn't bring herself to back down. Not now.

Suddenly, the youma reared up on its hindmost legs and charged, catching the senshi off guard. Kallichore hesitantly backed up and found she was quickly running out of room to move. She dove to the side as the creature brought its claws down, swiping at thin air, but Kallichore knew she couldn't take this thing out without some sort of miracle. Her attack simply didn't do much to non-humanoid creatures. Picking up another rock, she threw it, but it only angered the thing into charging again.

Time to run!

The youma shrieked in both surprise and in pain as some of its limbs went flying from its body, dissipating into smoke and darkness particles. This gave Kallichore enough time to stand and steady herself, eying the other senshi warily. She was so focused on fighting the youma that she didn't even think to scan the area for other powered individuals. Whoever she was, she was against the youma, which meant they were, theoretically, on the relatively similar side of the war. But this girl's energy signature and outfit were slightly different.

There would be time for deliberation later. The other girl chopped the youma's legs clean off with some kind of staff and kicked it in the crimson senshi's direction. Since her attack would prove meaningless against a brainless target, Christa did the only thing that logically made sense.

Since she and the youma were on the edge of the building, the darker senshi's kick made it stagger and lumber forward, losing balance not only from the lack of legs, but the force of the kick. Kallichore grabbed it behind the jaw as it stumbled past and shoved it over the side of the building, where it landed with a sickening crunch before using its last breath to wail its anger at the two girls. Breathing heavily, Kallichore watched over the edge as the creature's body disintegrated into nothingness, taking time to kneel and catch her breath. She never believed she could run like that, but adrenaline was an amazing thing she'd learned to rely on. Turning back to the redhead, Kallichore looked up at her rather impressive and embellished fuku and blinked.

"Thank you..." she wheezed, still trying to put wind back in her lungs. Her energy signature was similar, but something about it felt slightly different. She stood then and brushed herself off. "Who might you be?" Her voice was low, and cautious. She'd never seen this girl before and her run-in with two Negas made her more wary of trusting powered individuals right off the bat.

"Eternal?"

Kallichore blinked at Ares in confusion, but took her hand and shook it firmly. Ah, so she was a senshi, which was a good thing. She had many, many question to ask someone who'd been in the war for a great deal of time. Once she had wind back in her sails, so to speak, Kallichore gave her head a slight bow. Obviously, with how fancy Ares' fuku was, she had to be powerful. It seemed to her that the more powerful you were, the fancier you looked, so something like that. Ares' fuku also had wings on it! How impressive was that? But why was her bodice black? The only bodices she'd ever seen were white like her own.

When Ares started to look around, Kallichore was reminded to keep an eye out for other energy signatures that were not positive like their own. "I'm Sailor Kallichore, Senshi of Madness. It's... a pleasure, Ares. I have a lot of questions, if you don't mind." It would be pretty obvious how new Kallichore was, but the fact that Ares was impressed with her gave her a little confidence in what she was doing. "Last time I fought a Youma, I had Albali's help. It's clear to me that I'll need to do some more training before I can take them out on my own. My attack doesn't work well on mindless things..." Kallichore admitted absently, turning her head in search of energy signatures.

"That getting caught talking with you, Ares, will cause her demise? You don't really think we're going to let you increase your little blood moon club, do you?" Serandite asked, her tone laced with a sickening sweetness. Tall pink heels stepped forward to reveal herself from the blackness Alkaid came, a blackness that came out of nowhere.

Except, she appeared from behind Kallichore. She appeared with the tremendous wave of dark energy, even stronger than Alkaid, their dark energies crackling and pulsing in excitement. The excitement to devour and destroy everything in it's way.

"It's a pleasure to meet you too, Kallichore. I heard you were new on the block-- Can I introduce you to someone who's arriving as we speak? Her name's General Queen Tanzanite. It'll be a blast. I'm sure you dont need an introduction, Ares." Serandite's hand reached out, curving a hand in a gesture towards Ares. She could crush Kallichore easily. She hardly knew anything .. like a little baby. No wonder Ares wanted her-- it'd be easy to project a goal and image on a newborn .. Provided you had the chance.

Alkaid had done a great job of leading Serandite here.

The sudden surge of two very strong, very dark auras into their vicinity tossed Ares on edge a split second before the voices of two Negas reached her. She turned sharply, pitching forward as Alkaid threw the punch and Kallichore shoved her. The punch caught into the other senshi's gut. Ares snatched her hand out, clasping Alkaid on the wrist and shoving her backwards.

There were so many things that Ares wanted to say, but she could not take the risk. If Tanzanite was coming, then she needed to get out of here -- fast. "Charming welcome party," she said with a grunt, cartwheeling to the side away from Alkaid. She shot a hand forward, gripping Kallichore sternly on the arm.

With a scuff of boots, the Eternal Senshi of Smoke took off at a dead sprint across the rooftop. Seranite and Alkaid blocked her easy access to the closest mirrors, but there were others. She had taken the precautions.

"I killed Marthozite as a super senshi!" she shouted over her shoulder, dragging Kallichore like a ragdoll beside her. "Don't think of yourself as immortal, General Serandite. No one is -- no Nega at least!"

Taunting wasn't typically part of Ares' schtick, but she was pissed. And this was getting old. Every night, this happened. Every night, she was forced to run. Tonight, she also had the life of the Senshi of Madness to consider. With a blur of fuku, Ares shot around the rooftop, making for the next building.

It was just one very large jump away. "No time for fear, senshi," she said, releasing the girl's wrist and taking a flying leap from one rooftop to the next. If Kallichore wanted to live, she better learn to do the same... and fast.

Alkaid had taken off blindly after the pair, leaping across the building tops with a steady foot that came solely from years of practice. She might not have remembered everything about the city, but her skill in rooftop chases was still rooted deep in her mind. When the blur of pink flashed in the corner of her eyes, she knew that the general was right there beside her.

They were a team, they would do this together. They would bring Tanzanite justice.

The thought of it would have made Alkaid smile if she hadn't noticed the way the newbie Senshi stopped and turned to face them. She was thrown off guard momentarily, confused by what the girl thought she could possibly do against them both, until she saw the misty projectile on a beeline for them. Without a thought, she responded by twisting her path and stepping right in front of Serandite - taking the hit for her outranking officer.

She had one brief glimpse of the Senshi of Smoke grappling with Kallichore and pulling her onto the building top before the world exploded into a torment of voices. Her body tensed instantly, violently, and she brought her hands to her head as if she could scratch out the words that were echoing in her skull.

She heard Nemesis, promising death, whispering all the ways she would rip her heart out. Then there was Khaldun, quiet and frightened and begging to know why she'd broken all her promises. Then Tanzanite, above them all, condemning Alkaid for failure in a tone that was disappointment and hatred all at once. Below them were others, every face and every voice she had put to memory, telling tales of her failure and demise.

"Go," she choked out, soft and broken. It was the only thing she could manage to tell the general as she sunk slowly to her knees, lost in a world where every fear was a dark reality. Silent tears streamed down her face as she squeezed her hands together on either side of her temples, trying to destroy the words with the pressure.

Leaning over the edge of the building was a risk, but Ares couldn't just let Kallichore fall. They were on the same team, and the senshi was proving to be more and more daring with each passing moment. The Senshi of Smoke pulled the Kallichore onto the safety of the roof with a grunt, taking a staggering step backward right into Serandite's thrown fist. The teleportation and following punch were so fast that Ares had no defense against it. Her head cracked stiffly to the left, a spurt of blood and spit shooting out into the air.

Ares recovered quickly, using the spinning momentum of the thrown punch to twirl in a full 360 degree turn. Her leg lifted to a kick, and she slammed it at the side of General Serandite. Again, her fingers clenched the Senshi of Madness' wrist, tugging her a few feet away to the north side of the building. Her boots hooked on the edge, dangerously close even.

"Send Tanzanite my love," she hissed, eyes narrowed.

With her staff strapped to her back, Eternal Sailor Ares wrapped both arms around Sailor Kallichore and yanked her backward, throwing the pair off of the side of the roof without another word.

Ares' kick landed harshly towards Serandite's side, the momentum making the kick more painful than it should have been. She hissed, one hand clutching the impacted skin while the other struggled to grab what was left of Ares and the newbie. Jumping backwards? Were they suicidal or just---

-- smart? When Serandite ran forward to look over the edge, she had expected a lower building for them to run on. But instead, she was met with a glaring surface, it's dark pool of black, reflecting the night sky, didn't reveal a trace of either senshi. Serandite recalled what she knew about Sailor Ares. The girl went through mirrors.

Mirrors .. Possibly Marthozite's death. If it was, Serandite wasn't yet due to follow in his footsteps if Ares took the chance to mirror walk a knife into Serandite's chest. But who knew when she'd come back? Leaping hurriedly over to where Alkaid stood, a hand lifted Alkaid's arm to rope over Serandite's small shoulder for support. "C'mon, Alkaid. We'll go back for now-- Traveling through mirrors.. Who knows where she'll end up?"

Serandite intended to ask Alkaid what that attack had been all about. It immobilized her mentally.. Knowing Alkaid's extreme dedication, she would have came with Serandite in nearly all situations. What did the newbie have, that limited Alkaid like so? Within a black flash, both girls were out of there.