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Her father's ultimatum was plain as day - either Christa brings home one of her "new friends" and has them over for dinner, or Christa's very carefully fabricated story of what she'd been up to over the last few months will come crashing down. She'd be under permanent house arrest until further notice, effectively cutting her off from the one outlet she really had right now - being a senshi. She loved being what she was. She lived and breathed it like it was the only thing sustaining her on this Earth, and sometimes it really was. But as soon as the demand came to pass, the gray haired teen found herself rifling through her mental Rolodex to find out who she could ask this ridiculously awkward favor. As far as she knew, Ares was out of the question - she'd gone off somewhere for a retreat and was not reachable. Her cousin didn't count either. Christa had to bring home someone entirely new to the household for the ruse to hold, and she was getting desperate.

Several nights of searching proved fruitless thus far. Ganymede was out of the question as their butting heads on philosophical matters would be fatal around a dinner table. She didn't know how to reach Pasiphae. Ate and Polaris were out too. Kallichore didn't know them well enough and Ate was an a** - figuratively and very much literally. Several others she'd seen in passing, but didn't even know their names. This left one other option.

Europa.

Kallichore hated to track her down like a creeper again, but it simply had to be done in order to keep being a senshi. She couldn't escape her father's house easily enough and it would prove to be another fracturing point in the family. She had no choice. A quick glance at her surroundings lead her to believe an eternal was nearby - the energy signature was tremendous, just like she had picked up when she first met the other Jovian senshi. Polaris displayed the same power, and while those two were the only Eternals (aside from Ares, whose signature was similar, but different enough to be unique) she'd ever met, it was a possibility that another Eternal was out there. She had to take the chance.

Skipping from rooftop to rooftop, Kallichore carefully narrowed down the area where the Eternal could be by running about the signal's perimeter. If she didn't see anyone, she'd tighten the circle until she could pinpoint the Eternal's location. She just hoped it was the white winged senshi she was looking for.

Simply finding Europa was a huge relief and Kallichore felt a weight lift from her shoulders. The eternal had a sort of positiveness about her that the super senshi greatly admired. When Europa commented on her new super status, Kallichore looked down at herself and blinked. "Ah, um... a month or so ago, I suppose. I didn't recognize the cat and they left shortly after..." She stopped herself before going into details Europa likely didn't need to hear. Whether or not the occurrence was random mattered little in the grand scheme of things, and she had to constantly remind herself of that.

Letting out a pent up sigh, Kallichore tried to get right to the point as politely as she could. She certainly wouldn't blame the eternal for turning her down. "Europa, you have no idea how relieved I am to see you." she started, leaning over to catch her breath. She didn't realize how hard she'd been running until she hit a full stop. "I... I have a really serious problem I hope you don't mind helping me with. I know it's rather sudden but... I won't blame you if you don't want to. You're just the only option I have right now."

Settling into a sitting position, Kallichore shook her head and crossed her legs, letting the long sleeves of her fuku trail over her. This may take a while, and she invited Europa to sit with a gesture. "I recently battled a Negaverser on the highway and ended up losing. I was blasted down the on ramp and got scraped up pretty good. My father's been suspicious over the last few months and doesn't believe anything I say." Turning away, she pushed some hair out of her face. How embarrassing was this? Surely other senshi have had this problem? "He gave me an ultimatum - either I bring home one of my 'new friends', or I'm on indefinite house arrest. No more patrolling for me."

"Somehow I'm glad I'm not the only one who is having this problem. Or had, I guess." The super senshi leaned forward and rested her elbows on the meat of her thighs, thumbs twiddling together absently. If she stared down at herself, she would no doubt get lost in her own thoughts. "My cover story? Summer track meet. I thought that would explain all the exercise I seem to 'suddenly' be getting. Dad doesn't buy it. I'm not a sports person. I should have seen that coming from a mile away." Kallichore turned to look off into the distance, as if she really could see it out there somewhere. What was she thinking, assuming a sports story would pass over that easily? Really.

When she turned back to Europa, the senshi in crimson had a curious look on her face. "You would? You'd pretend to be my friend?" She knew exactly what Europa had meant by the statement no matter how awful it sounded out of context. Revealing one's civilian identity was no laughing matter, and Kallichore felt rather privileged that the eternal would even consider the question. Kallichore realized she'd never revealed her identity to someone outside of the Blood Moon, and even then it was to a select group of people, or Serpentarius, as she was family.

"That means a great deal to me, Europa. You were the last hope I had, really." The super senshi looked down at herself and intertwined her fingers together. "Is there maybe... something I can do in return? To make it up to you? I can't just have you come along for nothing at all. Surely there's something?" Since she'd seen and met more and more Jovian senshi, Kallichore was beginning to wonder if her place was permanently by Ares' side.

The super senshi shrugged in response. "I don't know the first thing about track either. I just made it up as I went along." That was probably her downfall and no matter how she spun it, her injuries simply weren't consistent enough to warrant the 'I fought the hurdle and the hurdle won' defense. Kallichore blinked and wondered where she had been going with that anyway. "You'd really go? Is there anything you'd like to have in particular for dinner? Dad's a pretty good cook, but if you're allergic or something, better let me know ahead of time. What is a good night for you?"

Europa then got to the heart of the matter (well, the other heart, the one thing that had been eating at Kallichore ever since they first met). Upon further review, the senshi of madness had only met three other Jovian senshi, one of which was sitting next to her. The other two were Pasiphae and Ganymede (and Valhalla if you counted him in the mix), but due to the sheer number of moons attributed to Jupiter, there had to be more senshi out there somewhere. Kallichore was determined to find them. A swift nod in the affirmative was her answer. "Certainly. Who do you know of already? I only know a few, but that won't stop me from trying to find more. Statistically speaking, more have to be out there."

If there was anything she was good at, research was it. Kallichore would spend several nights tracking down other Jovians if it meant that Europa would power down and join her at the dinner table at some point. It was the least she could do. "Ah, if you don't mind me asking... what school do you go to? I attend Meadowview. I'm trying to plan whether we can meet up after school, or at least say we did." Or they could call each other one their phones. Something was bound to work out.

Ah, now she was suddenly glad she asked about that. Kallichore nodded and took down the mental note to let her father know. Thankfully, her father was also considering becoming a vegetarian, so dinner shouldn't be too much trouble. "I'll let him know, and don't worry about it. Dad recently discovered some of those meatless roasts in the orange package and is in love. They're pretty good, actually." Kallichore herself wasn't a vegetarian, but could appreciate those who were. She liked lamb and things too much to give up meat.

Once Europa had started to list who she knew, it appeared they both were aware of the same small circle. "Have you met the knight Valhalla? I can go round him up easily enough, I think." The super senshi neglected to mention that they found out each other's identities purely by circumstance, but it was unnecessary anyway. Kallichore made a mental note to find a list of all the moons of Jupiter and start asking around. Your standard, entry-level senshi was a bit harder to pinpoint than an eternal due to the sheer number of them.

"I'll be graduating this year, and we may have seen each other before." Kallichore brushed some dirt off of her sleeve and thought for a moment, eyebrows fusing together in a look of either extreme concentration or embarrassment. "Should we... power down now and work things out, or wait until the same evening?" She had no idea how to go about doing this.

Kallichore stood as coffee was mentioned and decided it was probably a very good idea. "Yes, let's hit coffee. It'll be my treat." Walking to the edge of the building, she started her semi-silent descent to the ground. What cursed her most were those damned sleeves flapping in the wind. They killed any sort of ideas of being quiet while patrolling. Unless she taped them down... Landing safely on the sidewalk, she wasn't sure where the nearest coffeehouse was, but she was sure they could find it easily enough. A small side alley would prove safe enough to power down since a brief scan of the area yielded no one else that had any powers.

The super senshi stepped back under the cloak of darkness and in a brief flash of crimson light, brought herself back down to earth as a civilian. It was embarrassing, sure, but it couldn't be as bad as when she was forced to transform in front of someone else. Thank Jove he ended up being related to their burgeoning court and not some Negaverse agent. She'd been exceedingly lucky. Stepping out from the alley, she was wearing what every girl usually wore - faded jeans, flat shoes and your standard oversized sweatshirt from the local medical college, courtesy of her father.

She held out her hand to Europa. "Just call me Christa. I'll explain knights over coffee, if you don't mind."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Tallulah." came the reply and a rather obvious relieved sigh. She was incredibly grateful that Europa -- Tallulah -- would agree to such a thing. It really saved her a** from becoming a prisoner in her own home, which her companion could attest to being incredibly sucky. Christa wasn't one to be picky, so Starbucks was fine and very easy to post. There were at least three in any point in the city, and if you looked down the street, you could easily see at least two more. They proliferated like rabbits.

***

Some time later they arrived and placed their orders, Christa offering to pay for them and bring them back to the table as partial thanks. Once everything was said and done, the gray haired teen sat down with the two coffees. She wrapped her fingers around her own - a warm and plain blend. She wasn't as interested in the coffee as she was in educating someone else in something she only recently found out. Europa was her teacher in the previous months, so it seemed everything was cyclical. The Starbucks was relatively lively for this time of the evening and the two teens chose a table in the back corner to prevent their discussion from being overheard. In this case, even if they sat in the middle, it would be hard to hear them with all the other conversations and the music on top of that.

Christa began to divulge what she knew. "Knights... I've only met three of them, and all three purely by accident - they're like senshi, I suppose, minus the miniskirt and all those trimmings. I don't know if they have magic. The only ones I've seen have weapons, but they all represent each major planet. I've met Camelot, Page of Earth, Niflhel, Page of Saturn and Valhalla, Page of Jupiter. He's the most important one, I think, and I'm sure you know why." Leaning back in her chair, she took a couple sips of coffee while organizing the information she had left to tell.

"I know they start as pages and they all seem to have a weapon of some kind that regenerates every time they transform. Camelot had a shield and Niflhel had some kind of chains. Their outfits are very different from one another, but I don't know if that's common since I've met so few of them." The teen tilted her head and idly wondered if more knights were out there, or if this sudden awakening was something unplanned and more were on the way. "They awaken by themselves, somehow, or that's what Camelot told me. Camelot fights for the planet and for peace. He wants the war to end, but he's definitely on the side of good."

Europa's constant interruptions weren't a problem (dammit, Talullah! Get it right or you're sunk at dinner!), but the information she presented was definitely interesting. Christa didn't know anyone named Lina, nor did she know anything about someone starting as a Negaverse officer and then switching sides. Was reverse-corruption possible? Purification? "I don't have much else about the knights, but from what I can tell, they did not start out as Negaverse officers. I mean, that's what I know thus far. But who is Lina?"

She kicked herself for not awakening sooner. Had she known about all this, plus the Zodiacs, plus the royalty, plus the Moon Princesses' daughter running around, things would have worked out very differently. Christa knew she couldn't control when she was or wasn't awake, but that didn't stop her from frowning about it in the very least. "What do you mean though, when you said 'started out as Negaverse officers'? I'd like to know what the whole story is, if you don't mind."

Another sip of her coffee and Christa found herself becoming more educated in the last few weeks than she had been since awakening. And that was saying something.