Chaonis had been fighting hard for a long while. Every night, almost, had been a new fight. It was draining, to say the least.

And here he was again, in another battle. At least this one was with a youma and not something that might actually cause him trouble. He thought very lowly of the things, which is why it often pissed him off beyond measure to be hurt by them, and he was treating the fight like it was a training match. He was tried already, and the damn thing was refusing to die no matter how hard he had punched it.

The youma was a large snake, and it was coiled around him. He was punching it repeatedly but it was not inclined to let go until he called his attack and gave it a real hard hit. Right to its snakey face. It did not like that, at all, and immediately released him.

It coiled and struck, but Chaonis was almost as fast. Not really, but he had magic. He punched it hard again, right in the head, knocking it straight down to the floor. It should have exploded into dust, Chaonis thought, but it refused, coiling back and lashing out at him again. After a few more hits it was still alive, and Chaonis unleashed his attack. The buildings around the brawlers rattled and some of their awnings and over the rail to a fire escape started to fall off, but the main fault was down the alley, under the snake. It was caught and not going anywhere, and Chaonis finished it off.

Finally.

Panting, that attack draining him of more energy than he thought, he dusted himself off and didn’t see the second youma until its fangs were in the back of his shoulder.

Orion had found that patrolling helped him keep his mind off what was going on with Carter, and himself. When he was patrolling he just had to focus on finding youma and dusting them, with the occasional fight with a Nega. It was nice to not have to think of other, difficult things.

He was patrolling when he felt the building under his feet shake, and he stopped moving, crouching down so that he didn’t fall over. He concentrated, feeling the surrounding area for energy signatures and it didn’t take him long to pick up another senshi. Orion had learned a while ago that natural disasters weren’t always natural. Alcyone could call forth storms, who was to say that another senshi couldn’t cause an earthquake?

Standing up he ran towards the energy signature, jumping one rooftop before he was able to look down into the alley. He watched as one of the snake youma were dusted, and he didn’t have time to call out a warning before the second attacked. s**t. That did not look good. Using one hand he launched himself over the side of the building, angling himself to land on top of the snake. He managed to land straddling it, wincing at the impact, but he was quickly sliding down it’s body unable to get a grip on it. He didn’t let that stop him though, and he began punching the snake. Maybe he could at least distract it enough so that it let the other senshi go.

Chaonis let out a pained, very grumpy sound as the fangs of the youma sank into his skin, drawing blood. He reached back to try and grab it, but it was too fast for him, wrenching to the side and dragging its fangs, still connected to his flesh, with it. Painful, and not a fun way to learn not to try that kind of an attack, the Senshi of Danger noted ruefully.

He felt a thump and was jerked forward, then suddenly released from the snake. He hit the ground with a grunt, though he got his arms under him as quickly as he could, turning to look at the senshi now on top of the snake youma.

He had wanted to cause a distraction, and he certainly succeeded.

The snake was fully focused on the new senshi, trying to bite and coil, get itself around and away from the annoying thing clinging to it so it could squeeze the life out of him in turn. It hissed angrily, though it at least had no rattle to threaten with. Its fangs were still dripping ominously, though for the moment Chaonis seemed to be alright.

“Don’t let it get around you!” Chaonis offered as he pulled himself painfully to his feet, wanting to go and help the senshi now that he sort of owed him one. Damn it.

When the snake let go of the other senshi Orion grinned, though he didn’t have long to savour his victory as the snake started biting at him. The redhead shoved himself backwards, sliding along the snake’s body until he could slide off it. Backing up he glanced towards the other senshi, hearing his advice. It was a bit obvious, but he appreciated it nonetheless.

Taking another step back he looked to the other guy waving him back. ”Back up! I’m gonna hit it with my attack.” He didn’t want another senshi to get stuck getting hit by his meteors, that would suck. When he gauged the other teen was far enough away he pointed at the snake calling out his super attack. He wanted to try and get this thing dusted fast. ”Meteor Shower!” There was a crackle of power and then meteors the size of basketballs started to fall out of the sky, towards the snake.

Chaonis looked surprised when he was told to back up. Sure, help was one thing, but taking over the fight? That was something all together different, and something Chaonis couldn’t quite abide. He moved toward the senshi, but his body jerked and he stumbled to his knees.

A strange feeling came over him. Sleepiness? No, more like heaviness. A weight in his limbs that made it difficult to move. No pain or any heat, like what he expected poison to feel like, which he instantly worried about. Snakes and fangs and poison were all connected, after all. He tried to stand again and succeeded, stumbling away from the snake to give Orion room to fight it.

Chaonis toppled over, groaning in frustration. His mind was telling him to get up and fight, but his body was very slow to listen. He might get back up to his feet, but what good would that do?

The injury, at least, wasn’t terrible. The snake had two fangs, which had gotten into the fleshy part of his shoulder but hadn’t sunk in too deeply. It would heal, but he wondered if the feeling in his arms was something he was going to have to worry about now. Panic hit him, at the very idea that some youma had permanently hurt him. His arms, no less, making him useless in a fight.

Completely.

He wasn’t going to have that, and struggled to get to his feet, managing to do so with profound effort and in time to see the meteors hitting the youma, causing it to hiss and toss, lashing out in every direction, trying to avoid the meteors, or trying to attack Orion in its frenzy.

Orion watched as his meteors fell hitting the snake, it was always nice when his aim was spot on instead of two feet in the wrong direction. With the snake otherwise occupied he backed away from it, looking for the wounded senshi.

It didn’t take long to spot him, and he didn’t look like he was in good shape. Moving over to him he was going to try and help him up, but by the time he had gotten there he was already on his feet. Orion frowned looking at the wound. ”Hey, are you okay, man? That bite looks painful, and you don’t look so good.” Every so often he glanced over to the snake trying to stay alert and not let the thing sneak up on them.

”Maybe you should get out of here?” He didn’t know if the other sailor had been poisoned or what, but he didn’t seem to be moving very fast.

Chaonis looked at Orion, looking insulted that he would even suggest him running away. Not that Orion knew Chaonis, or could be blamed for a perfectly reasonable suggestion like taking his sluggish, wounded a** out of the fight. Still. It annoyed the Senshi of Danger and he bristled, shaking his head.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he growled, stubborn to a fault.

It wasn’t a sense of duty that kept him fighting. It was pride. His own pride, and in what he was. Plus, he could not have someone witnessing him failing this badly. No, he had to stick around, make it better for himself some how. The last thing he wanted to do was puss out and leave the fight he started to some other guy, because he couldn’t handle it. If only because that other guy would always know about it. That thought bothered Chaonis to his core. He simply could not have it.

The snake was reeling, in pain but not dust so clearly not yet defeated. The last one had been very tough, at least for punches and kicks, and this one seemed to be just as defiant as far as being directed to die went. It moved toward Orion and Chaonis with a vicious hiss.

Orion couldn’t help but roll his eyes when the injured senshi refused to leave. Pride was one thing, but sticking around in a fight when you could barely move was just stupid. ”Fine, but if you’re going to stay, stay out of my way.” He didn’t want to be hindered by having to save the other senshi again.

When the snake came at them Orion jumped back, looking around for something he could use as a weapon. He couldn’t spot anything super shiny but he did see a couple of round trash cans. Darting over he grabbed the lid of one, throwing it at the snake’s face like a Frisbee. Hoping to use that as a distraction he ran in, both hands balled into fists. He jumped trying to punch the snake in the face.

Chaonis grumped but refused to acknowledge that he was going to get in the way. He could still help, damn it. His hands were feeling heavy and he could barely get his body moving, but that didn’t mean anything. It would fade. In fact, though he was so stubborn and angry it was hard for him to think about it, he was already feeling different. As the youma weakened, so did the poison.

He was attributing his strength to his own awesomeness, of course, and he was not going to think otherwise.

Stumbling back as the snake moved toward them, he let Orion take its attention, hopefully. It was just furious, and not really thinking about who it was targeting. The one throwing s**t at it and then running at it and trying to hit it in the face was a good place to start, though. It lashed out and whipped its long tail around to catch Orion, taking the hit and wavering but squeezing with some surprising determination for a youma.

But it was weakening.

Chaonis moved to fight, punching the youma’s coils and trying to get Orion free, though he was still clearly sluggish.

Orion felt the force of his punch reverberate back down his arm, and he was distracted from the snake. His distraction cost him because before he knew it the snake had wrapped around him and was squeezing pretty tight. The redhead gasped for air, beating at the snake with his fists. This wasn’t cool at all.

He thought about using his sailor level attack, but that would mean bringing meteors down on himself which wouldn’t be pleasant. But as the snake was refusing to let go of him he figured it was his only option. He didn’t bother warning the other senshi this time, instead he just called out his attack. ”Meteor Rain!”

There was another crackle and smaller meteors began to fall, this time centered around Orion himself. He lifted his arms trying to protect his head as best he could. He’d definitely have some burns in the morning though.

“Hey!”

Chaonis yelped when the meteors started to fall. They were smaller than before, but they were still burning rocks falling from the sky. He stumbled backwards, but had to hold his ground. At least he wasn’t right under the rain, like Orion was. Damn right he wasn’t: he would have been pissed.

As it was, Chaonis lunged. He was too tired to try another one of his attacks, so he just had to do things the old fashion way. Anyway, with two powered up hits from Orion, the snake wasn’t doing too good anymore. It’s grip was weakening and, better in Chaonis’ opinion, so was the poison.

He slammed his fist into the youma’s face while it was being hit by the meteors, and it finally released Orion and fell to the ground in a heap. Feeling much better, Chaonis followed after it, stomping on it repeatedly in an effort to turn it into dust.

Cathartic.

Orion heard the other senshi’s cry of indignation, but he didn’t care. It wasn’t like he had called down the meteors directly on top of him. It was his fault if he couldn’t get out of the way in time. He hissed in pain as meteors bounced off his arms, burning holes in his shirt. One managed to bounce off his head and the scent of burnt hair filled the air. The redhead made sure to pat that fire out before all his hair was gone.

When he was finally released Orion fell to the ground, landing on his hands and knees. He was gasping for air, trying to catch his breath after being squeezed. Being hugged by a snake youma monster wasn’t something he particularly enjoyed.

He looked up from his position on the ground, watching the other senshi go after the snake. He seemed to be doing better so Orion let him have the glory, he was still trying to make sure he hadn’t set himself on fire.

Once the youma was a very satisfying pile of dust, Chaonis looked back at Orion. He was smoking a bit, and his clothes looked burned.

“So, do you usually target yourself when you fight?”

No ‘thank you’ yet, if one was coming at all. It was unlikely one would come, unless it was forced. He shook his head and sighed, reaching back to see how his shoulder was. The injury wasn’t too bad, but it stung. He felt much better, his body feeling much better. No trace of the poison now that the youma was dead. No worry that he had been permanently wounded.

Good.

“Well, anyway.” He took out his phone and got the senshi’s information, looking at it with a grumpy face. He probably owed him one. But then, no, because he had been the one to kill the youma, right? Perfectly even. “Yeah.”

Orion laughed dully at his words. ”Ha ha.” Pushing himself to his feet he brushed himself off. ”I try not to actually.” He crossed his arms across his chest, staring at him. He was a bit of an ungrateful jerk in Orion’s opinion. He didn’t demand thanks though, it wasn’t why he had helped him. He was just doing the right thing. Of course, now that it was over and done with he was half wishing he would’ve just let him be.

He watched the other senshi take his information. For a moment he pondered getting his own phone out and scanning him in, but then he decided against it. He didn’t think he’d be wanting to give this particular senshi a call to chat anytime soon.

”Yeah, well I guess that’s that.” For a moment he stood looking around the alleyway, but then he shook himself. ”I’m getting out of here,” He didn’t waste time with pleasantries, instead he just jumped onto the rooftop of the nearest building and took off at a slow jog.

Chaonis nodded his head. He did feel the slight urge to say thank you, but his pride wouldn’t let him. He watched as the other senshi hopped off, sighing heavily and closing his eyes. He was stressed, tired, and sore now. But at least he hadn’t lost.

Not to a youma.

He looked at the damage and the dust, then moved away. He powered down almost on his doorstep, though made sure no one was following him by then, heading in with the key he had been given. Tony wasn’t in the living room, either asleep or off being dumb somewhere. Probably with his beloved senshi. Not bothering to think about that tonight, Nate just went to bed and flopped down into it, snoring almost instantly.