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A small shadow seperated from the rest, slinking over to the figures waiting on the roof. Hiro eyed them, considering. Fluorite, he knew. The new senshi, he didn't. But corrupted senshi were his responsibility. He hadn't needed Fluorite to ask for his assistance, but it hadn't hurt in bumping Alunite to the top of his list of senshi to visit, either.

He stared at the male senshi. No doubt the kid was staring back, wondering what the hell a beat-up looking orange cat was doing here.

Hiro turned his one eye on Fluorite. "I'll take it from here," he advised the girl. He'd have to chase her down later for another check-in and see how she was doing. They'd been planning to work on her scaling buildings, he thought. He'd see if she'd been practising.

But for now, Hiro turned back to stare at his newest charge. "So, the Senshi of the Eclipse. I hear you're going by Alunite?"

And Alunite thought leggings and skirts were bad? They had nothing on talking cats. Bossy talking cats, who liked to criticise.

Hiro rolled his eye. Of course they hadn't mentioned any more than that. "Damn useless... just who the hell is doing all this corrupting, anyway...?" Not so quiet grumbling came from the cat. If they were going to keep corrupting senshi, they either needed a cat there to explain things, or to not just pass the buck along, really.

"So basically, what you're saying is that you know nothing," Hiro said, louder now. He stared at Alunite. Well, at least he knew what he was working with. "What did they explain to you? The Negaverse? What a senshi is?"

Clearly, nothing about Alunite's powers or sphere, considering the kid had seemed surprised when Hiro had mentioned eclipses. This was why the Negaverse needed to include the cats when corrupting senshi. Kid hadn't even known what his power was. Wouldn't have a clue how to use his magic attack, either.

Fluorite had done the right thing in calling Hiro. Of course, when she'd said she needed him to train 'Alunite', Hiro had been expecting another normal Negaverse officer. It was only when he'd approached the meeting point that one of the small corrupted dots in his head had revealed itself as the star-glow of a newly awakened senshi.

One ear perked up at the revelation that someone had been trying for a normal Lieutenant when they'd corrupted this one. The appearance of a senshi instead had apparently been a surprise.

Hiro huffed. They could have asked him (or one of the other cats, he was sure he wasn't the first or only one that Destiny City's negaverse had) to check first. He could have told them that they'd picked a sleeping senshi.

Ah well. More senshi for him this way. Hiro perked up. It wasn't like he wanted them all dead when the Negaverse won. At least this way he had another one that would live - assuming Hiro could train Alunite well enough that the senshi would survive the war to see the day the Negaverse won.

"What's done is done," Hiro said with a flick of his tail. "Time to focus on you."

Hiro's one eye stared down Alunite. It was sharp, assessing and burned with inner fire. Alunite might prefer Hiro wasn't focusing on him, really.

"Yes, you were told correctly. Senshi are born to protect other planets, stars and celestial bodies out there. They didn't manage to protect them very well, though, and they all died out." Hiro wasn't sure on the details of that, but he knew it was true. "They're all being reborn here on Earth. So we are here to protect the Earth from them."

Which of course brought up the question of 'but shouldn't I be on the other side? - and shouldn't Hiro as well? - but Hiro was getting to that. "The Negaverse has managed to save a few of us, so we assist them. You've heard of fighting fire with fire? They chose to fight magic with magic."

He paced back and forth in front of Alunite, a tiny, furry, drill sergeant. Every now and then he would pause and shoot Alunite a sharp glance. He did so right now. "That is what the Negaverse cannot teach you, but I can: your magic. You are the senshi of the eclipse. That is your power. My name is Masahiro and I am a guardian cat. My job is train you so that you live long enough to use your power against the invading senshi."

He paused and sat down, facing Alunite. "Any questions so far?"

Hiro puffed out his chest. Alunite should count himself lucky that Hiro didn't believe in having a drill sergeant's voice on top of the attitude - but secrecy was important, after all, and deafening students never helped anyone. "Considering that 'Alunite' is a Negaverse name, not a senshi one, I cannot be sure if you are from a star, a planet, moon, comet, nebula, asteroid, black hole, do you need me to continue because I can keep going? In any case, no, you couldn't be born back there because that civilisation was wiped out - or so the White Moon senshi have said. No people there means no babies. No babies, no chance for you to be reborn there."

Really, was it that hard to work out? What did Alunite think Hiro had meant by 'died out'? Dead. Nothing. No one.

... If one believed the White Moon senshi, of course. It could just be their excuse when confronted about their invasion. But Hiro was inclined to believe them - not because he had any sentimental feelings for uncorrupted senshi, but because Mauvian logic dictated that if any of those civilisations were still alive, the new senshi would have been born out there. Not here in Earth, stuffing everything up for everyone else.

"Yes, you died. Roughly one thousand years ago. A senshi's starseed then travels through the Space Cauldron to be cleansed and reborn as a new life. That usually does mean not remembering any past lives," and who said Hiro didn't have a handle on droll sarcasm. "There are some exceptions, no doubt, but it doesn't seem to extend to senshi on our side."

Hiro didn't know why that was. Only that the corrupted senshi - and Hiro himself - had no memories regarding the identities of other senshi they'd once known. No memory of their past lives. And no way to reach their old, dead planets/stars/etc. as reports indicated the senshi could. (The recently corrupted Lyra, for example, had apparently taken one of the Generals along with her once. By accident. Small wonder she'd gotten herself kidnapped and corrupted, Hiro had thought.)

"You were recruited by the Negaverse before your powers as a senshi were awakened. Just being reborn into a new life doesn't mean you'll be a senshi again - the potential is always there, but it just... sleeps... until a Guardian Cat like myself comes along and wakes it up. Or sometimes mortal danger will trigger an awakening. Or recruitment to the Negaverse, apparently, has the same effect."

And now they reached the fun part, oh yes. Powers. The abilities that the humans of the Negaverse couldn't quite match, no matter how they tried to compensate with giant weapons. (Hiro, biased? Never.)

"What does it do?" Hiro repeated. His ears drooped and his tail flickered. Lack of imagination, this one. Or logic. Or both. He sighed. "What does an eclipse do? It hides things."

Or so the first level of power waiting in Alunite said to Hiro. Not in words, nothing so explicit. Just a sense that when Hiro reached out to it, in the same part of his mind that tracked senshi like a sea of stars, Alunite's... shivered... and then fuzzed out. Not quite invisible, but clearly hiding.

Clearly this was going to need a practical demonstration. Hiro walked closer to Alunite. "Repeat after me: Umbra Eclipse."

He waited expectantly. It would be interesting to see exactly what the attack did. Hiro didn't have all the details - it wasn't like each senshi came with their own instruction manual (though that would certainly make his life easier).

Hiro stared. Alunite was clearly visible to his eye, but if he'd been trying to track the senshi via his power signature, that would have just royally screwed things up. The effect faded away, lasting perhaps less than a minute. That didn't bother Hiro - it was Alunite's first attempt at using his abilities, of course they would have limitations.

"Veeeeery intriguing," Hiro purred. He flicked an ear at Alunite. "You felt that, right? It seems your ability can hide your energy signature - spread it out over a much wider area."

There was a cunning gleam in Hiro's eye. "That would be very useful for sneak attacks."

And also for running away, but Hiro wasn't going to promote that as the first or preferred use of the power. Incredibly handy, yes. It would help keep Alunite alive for longer. But the Negaverse wanted useful corrupt senshi, not just living corrupt senshi. So, focus on attacking first, then on getting out unscathed.

Hiro hummed, also not picking up on the fact that he and Alunite weren't sensing the same thing. He was also thinking of the uses, as well as wondering about later stage powers and whether or not the length or strength of the ability would increase as Alunite's experience grew.

"A very good first effort," Hiro praised his newest student. As though sharing a secret, he leaned close and added, "You'd be surprised at the number of senshi who can't use their magic properly on their first go."

Or so he'd heard. Rumours and all that. Hiro wouldn't be surprised, though - especially for those silly White Moon senshi, who no doubt didn't have a useful Guardian Cat among them. Hmph. Hiro flicked his tail up.

"I suspect," Hiro said, eyeing off Alunite, "that your ability could also be used on others. As I said, great for hiding someone's approach, either yourself or a higher-up whose energy signature would be more noticable. Also handy for hiding your escape, but let's not get you into the habit of running from everything before you've even had your first battle."

Though staying alive was a good plan. No doubt Alunite would agree.

Some senshi, Hiro had heard, didn't use their magical attacks much at all. Whether that was lack of skill, or just lack o a useful ability, he couldn't be sure. But he heard of such things. Not to mention, the occasional senshi too unfocused or disciplined to be able to pull off their attack right away, and having to be rescued by other figures - it sounded very embarrassing for the Guardian Cat involved, Hiro thought.

He nodded at Alunite's second question. "That sounds right." He hadn't noticed any obvious pointing or directing of the attack. If Alunite's first instinct regarding it was 'whoever I think of is the target', Hiro was prepared to tell the young man to follow his gut. Senshi usually had a better handle on these things than they thought they did.

"We can always try it on someone else later, to be sure. Fluorite, perhaps, or another senshi on our side." Hiro quite liked the idea of introducing some of the senshi, getting them used to working together on occasion. Besides, the senshi weren't quite like the regular Negaverse officers. They should know that others were in the same boat, many of them having memory problems after the corruption process was complete.