[B]Spin a Web of Comfort? (Hug-bell x Sinon)

[LP]

Hug-bell was out patrolling, thinking about things that had happened in that meeting Polaris had called, carrying her camera in a small plush backpack. It looked like a Caterpillar, in matching pastel yellows and blues.

The girl sighed, as she moved along. It seemed the chibis needed to prove themselves, however the hardest part about proving oneself was always actually proving that they weren't too small to do something useful. Her butter yellow eyes were focused a head of her, and her thoughts kept her from fully being aware of her surroundings. After the incident with Wolframite she had been trying to be more careful but tonight the child was too caught up in thought.

Still she paused, "What are we suppose to do? It's hard enough for one of us to prove we're just as good as the big senshi." She was looking up at the sky, the stars were apparently they were from. Hug-bell still wasn't sure if she believed all that.  

[Syusaki]

The excitement of being upgraded to super had yet to wear off. Sinon wasn’t sure how to describe her delight. It was like all those months spent running around town fighting youma and Negaverse agents had more of a meaning now that she had grown in power. Her promotion felt like a reward for all the sleepless nights and broken bones. Most would probably consider that an unfair trade off—all that pain for one level up? She was fine with it, though.

Lazily poised on her skateboard, the senshi snaked through the empty streets of Destiny City. Nighttime was a pleasant time, sans the fighting. The distinct lack of cars allowed the redhead to swerve through the car lanes without worry of being run over by oncoming vehicles. It was pleasurable to be able to move around with so much free space, compared to the narrow area of sidewalks as well as the added obstacles of oncoming pedestrians.

She noticed a familiar figure up ahead. The small stature and bright yellow hood was iconic. “Hugbell?” Sinon called out. She remembered encountering the chibi senshi a few times in the past—mainly in Elysion. “What are you doing by yourself?”  

[LP]

Hug-bell paused, she'd heard a somewhat familiar voice. The child smiled, "Patrolling." She chirped the answer cheerfully. It had been a while since Elysion, and she had also leveled up. She wasn't a base senshi anymore, granted she wasn't offensive either; that said she was slightly more interested in what she was working on.

"Plus I'm having a hard time sleeping." She punched at the air trying to look intimidating, well at least as much as a little girl could in a pastel yellow fuku with a bear hoodie. She turned to look at Sinon, star dangle from her hood waved back and forth. "What are you doing by yourself?" She countered and cracked a bright smile.  

[Syusaki]

“Patrolling.” She repeated the simple yet informative answer. Oh, yes. Sinon should have figured. “You know, when I was younger and had trouble sleeping, some hot cocoa or warm milk always did me in.” If it sounded like she was demeaning Hugbell in anyway, it was actually not the case—it was a simple truth: as a child, Sinon did need a warm drink to get herself to bed. Even now she would occasionally whip up a cup of cocoa right after she got home from patrolling. It made falling asleep an easier task.

“Same as yourself.” Sinon grinned and saluted the younger girl while hopping off her board. “You know, you should probably patrol with someone else. I’m not going to stop you from doing your senshi duties and patrolling the city.” She paused, taking a good look at Hugbell. “Especially because you’re a super, but you’re also young. Some of those buggers have tricks you’ve never seen that could easily get the better of you if you’re alone.”  

[LP]

"Yes" Hug-bell nodded to the echo of what she was doing. tilting her head at the suggestion of warm milk or hot cocoa. "I might try that, but I've been hearing odd noises at night. So that might not help, in this case."

She paused when the other said she was doing the same, "On a skate board?" She asked looking curiously at Sinon. Why would anyone want to use to a skateboard for patrolling? She shook her head though, "Yes, I am young." There was a pause frowning, "I know enough to know how to keep myself from getting into too deep of trouble and if it's something I can't handle I can call others for backup." She held out her senshi phone and scanned in Sinon.

Pausing, "I know the negaverse can teleport, and that their weapons in captain stage can be really bad like knives." She had put up her phone and was rubbing her hand now. "I might not have awesome powers that can beat someone up and Barnaby might only grow big, but that's one advantage to protect myself the bad guys don't have. Even if I normally use him for catching others."

Something was prowling close to the senshi, watching them in the dark. Hug-bell crossed her arms, "Everyone I meet seems to think we're pretty useless." The child actually held a crossed look on her face, head snapping towards a noise that almost sounded like a trashcan falling over. Granted it could've been a cat that had been startled.  

[Syusaki]

“Odd noises.” Sinon frowned worriedly. She decided not to pry, anyways. She was not too familiar with Hugbell, so she didn’t have much of a right to dig into her private life—as much as the senshi of lies wanted to.

“Yeah, on a skateboard,” she confirmed with a nod. The redhead bent down to pick it up, proudly lifting the bottom to reveal her hand-drawn design. “I drew the bottom design myself! I like patrolling on a skateboard because I can go all over the streets without fear of being run over or crashing into people!” Sure, it was probably slower than hopping from rooftop to rooftop, but to each their own.

She smiled sheepishly when she realized she had broached a sensitive topic. It made sense. Hugbell was young—younger than most senshi—but she was still a senshi, nonetheless. Sinon could also recall her younger self wanting to become independent despite her small age. Children were children, but they had opinions and minds of their own too. She chuckled as she also flipped open her own phone to scan in the chibi senshi. “Yes, that’s true. How silly of me.”

“Yes, they can.” She agreed in a soft voice. Sinon chuckled. “Oh, do they now?” A trashcan fell down, the echoing clatter disturbing the peaceful conversation. Unlike Hugbell, Sinon slowly turned toward it. She peered into the darkness, waiting for something to appear. A stray cat? A youma? A stranger?  

[LP]

Hug-bell nodded, "Yes, odd noises. I'll find them eventually." She said shrugging her shoulder completely sure they were coming from somewhere in her house, she just couldn't locate it.

The child looked at the bottom of the skateboard looking interested in the design, "Do you draw lots?" She asked curiously her mind wondering back to ways they could prove the chibi senshi were worth something to the older ones.

Hug-bell smiled when the other said that was true, "If I run into something I can't handle I'll call someone to help me okay? I have you and a lot of other older senshi in my phone." She said with a tilt of her head maybe that would help convince the red head.

"Yes, they do." Hug-bell was still watching the alleyway, something was lurking there. She could see the occasional movement but not what it was. There was a small frown, wondering what it could be. "We should go check it out." She said starting slowly towards whatever it was...  

[Syusaki]

“I draw doodles and stuff, yeah.” Sinon grinned. “My teacher says I have good designs and graphics. I’d never really know what I wanted to do as a job when I grew up, but I guess I’ve found it now!” She imagined the pay to be meager, but her parents were just glad she had found something worth doing for the rest of her life and she had a feeling she wouldn’t regret her choice. Creating designs had been something she did for a long time, and it all started with a pen, a dull lecture, and a blank canvas called her arm. The thought made her want to laugh. Even now she liked to draw on her arms and legs, as unhealthy and odd as it was.

She smiled at Hugbell. “I can only hope other chibi senshi of lots of older senshi to call when they need help, too.” Hugbell was not the only chibi senshi she knew. Admittedly, Sinon’s list of young senshi was short and consisted only of two others.

“I’m assuming that what they’re saying is bothering you.” Sinon walked alongside Hugbell, her eyes intently focusing on the direction of the sound.  

[LP]

Hug-bell listened to Sinon, tilting her head. "So you want to be an artist?" She asked as they headed towards the source of the noise.

She paused nodding, "I'm working on that, I think..." She replied as she watched the alley, something was moving. She couldn't tell what though, there was a frown as she glanced back.

"We're just as good as any other senshi." She replied, as she watched the shadows moving. "No one seems to realize that." She paused to pick up a rock and throw it towards whatever was in the shadows. Maybe it was a cat, if it was it'd take off.  

[Syusaki]

“Well, not an artist artist, as in, like, painting people or something. Graphics. You know what they are, right? I can sort of draw, but nothing pro-like.”

The shadows began to move and the chibi senshi chose to throw a rock at the creature. Sinon secretly hoped it was just a stray cat, but unfortunately it was more than a stray cat.

It let out a monstrous yowl as the shadow suddenly grew in size. Out from the shadows not just any ordinary cat, it was a youma cat. It hissed, baring its fangs as its dirty tail flitted back and forth and its ears twitched.

“Yikes!” Sinon immediately moved her arm as she called out her attack. “Web of Lies!” Hopefully the creature would get tangled in it and give the pair some time to look for weapons or devise some sort of strategy. “Ah---right, and you want to fix that, right? To show other senshi that chibi senshi are just as good?”  

[LP]

Hug-bell seemed interested in 'not an artist artist' "It's still art." She added, as she watched the creature grow. There was a small step back until Sinon called out her attack.

"Yes." The chibi senshi replied. She did want to prove they were jut as good. "We're not something that just gets in the way, a lot of the older senshi don't always see it that way. They think we can't take care of ourselves." As the child spoke she was looking around before pointing towards some old wood that was laying out. "Do you think that'd work?" It looked like someone had just finished remodeling their apartment or something.  

[Syusaki]

“Well, yeah, but it’s not the kind of art most people expect, ya know?” Sinon shrugged as she attempted to explain her point.

“’kay, well, younger kids do have a few disadvantages that make it difficult to be like us older kids, ya?” Her tone was gentle. Admittedly, younger senshi were notably weaker in terms of physical strength and in some cases, completely clueless when it came to dire situations. “Ah, but I get you’re frustrations! When I was your age I wanted to be recognized too.” The last statement was hastier, tacked on. Sinon followed Hug-bell’s finger and nodded her head. “It’ll work.” She strode over, bent down, and picked it up. She pulled her lips into a thin line as she realized how heavy the chunk of wood was despite its appearance. “But ya, your problem. You could uh…I dunno. Make some network of friends to call for back up. Maybe?”  

[LP]

Hug-bell shrugged, "Is there any art people readily expect? Besides cartoons I mean. Look at that guy that did the soup can." She'd seen her mom with some magazines on art occasionally and some of the things show cased where Andy Warhol and other weird artists; granted she didn't know who did what, she just knew she'd seen some weird things called 'art'.

She paused, looking at Sinon when she said there were disadvantages. "Well yeah but I mean seriously, they don't have to make us sit out because of EVERYTHING they think we can't do." She looked at the wood pile before picking up a slightly heavy piece she had trouble lifting but was able to get it on her shoulder as she walked towards the youma that seemed to be struggling with Sinon's attack.

"I have that." She added, "I've been working on that since I found out my phone can do that." The child inched closer looking at the youma it looked like it'd been hit with an ugly stick. It had the face of a monkey and the arms and tail of a lemur but with tuffs of fur here and there, it also had long lanky ears like a rabbit. Granted it sounded and acted like a cat. "These things keep getting weirder." She said with a frown before taking a swing at it with the piece of wood, ending up spinning around on her heel because the wood was so heavy it pulled her body with it. She effectively missed the youma with that sort of swing, and came out pretty dizzy because of it.  

[Syusaki]

“Well, I guess not.”

Sinon watched Hugbell with a worried expression as the chibi senshi bent down to pick up a piece of wood that seemed just a smidge too heavy for the child, but she allowed her to attack the youma on her own nonetheless. Judging by their current conversation, the redhead figured that it would be no good to intervene yet. “They’re probably just being protective. I got protective of my little brothers all the time, even when they’re already in middle school. They’ll always be my younger siblings, no matter how much they grow and mature.” She smiled fondly.

“Oh, you already have? Wow, guess you’re ahead of the game, then! That’s nice. Uhhh. Well. I dunno what to tell you next. I guess you could make a group, or something? I know some of us have made some teams, though I’m not sure how efficient that’s been…” Sinon shrugged, ambling closer to the weird animal-hybrid. “You know, when I first awakened I had to fight a doll youma. These things are always weird. It’s kind of like a fact of life.”

As soon as she saw Hugbell miss the hit and stumble around with the block of wood, Sinon lunged forward and booted the monkey-cat-rabbit thing away with her boots before it had a chance to attack the smaller girl. She attempted to relieve Hugbell of the chunk. “Next time, let’s pick up things that are easier for us to carry, okay?” Sinon suggested with a smile.  

[LP]

Hug-bell wrinkled her nose when she heard the lets find easier things to carry next time the dizziness was wearing off. "It was a good weapon!" She said with a tilt of her head before looking back at the Youma, "Prolly would've been better for you though."

She pondered glancing around, where had it gone... Oh she noticed where it had ended up after Sinon gave it the boot. She grinned sheepishly, "Okay fine, lets get it though!" She wasn't going to give up.

The child looked at the youma before charging after it going to attempt to hit it again this time with her fist. Hopefully this would be an easier choice...