Sis miles magica! = Become a magical soldier!

Night fell faster every evening, it seemed; one moment, the sun would be full up and then it would spring below the horizon. Tate knew, intellectually, that wasn't so. She knew from school, from sense, that the sun followed an orderly progression from its rise to its zenith and then its fall. She knew that the only reason it seemed to move so fast through those hours of its rotation was that she didn't want it to set. The setting sun stood as the measure by which her clock was set. The most obvious reason was that Parker tended to go quiet after the sun sank below the horizon line, making that window of time the perfect one in which to do homework. She always thought much more clearly in the silence, with only ambient noise and her own voice for company.

So the sun set, and Tate finally left the library, moving at a brisk pace because even though East Heights had been cleaned up, walking home alone at night was asking for trouble. Even for males, anymore; they taught children how to ward off terrorists, now. Tate knew now that most pretty-suited sailor soldiers of love and justice (really, what a stupid name) weren't actually a danger to children. It was their peers, the Negaversers, that you had to watch out for. That had been obvious since the day she'd seen Wolframite on the television, pretending to be a senshi and threatening a reporter.

Tate walked quietly; it came from years of sneaking around her childhood home, avoiding her mother and father. You couldn't clomp like an elephant up old stairs, not under any circumstances, not even if your mother was drunk as hell on the couch. Mariska got damned nasty when drunk, and even if occasions when Mariska raised a hand to Tate had been rare, they'd happened once or twice.

Caught up in her thoughts that way, she almost missed the sounds behind hers, the eerie breathing matched up to hers exactly. Her suspicion grew as the sounds of the footsteps that were supposedly hers grew louder, breathing heavier. For just a moment, she stopped walking and held her breath.

Then she heard it. The noise she'd been hearing? Not human footsteps. Not animal, either, if she had to guess. No. It was a monster.

It sent shivers running down her limbs, the sound of wicked claws scraping the concrete. No animal made that much noise when its claws clicked against the pavement; not any mortal animal, not any true animal. Her heart stuttered in her chest at a low, chittering noise.

She started to walk again, picked up the pace. Maybe if she just moved a little faster, it wouldn't be able to keep up with her? Tate picked up her pace, lengthening her stride as she did. The sound of the claws faded, the heavy breathing stopped, and she let out a deep sigh of relief. Had it given up?… it must have. She didn't hear it any more. Not even on the rooftops; no, just silence reigned above her and around her, except for the far-off honking of car horns and the sounds of sirens.

Okay. Everything was fine. Tate pressed a hand tight over her heart, and tried to quell the moment of fear and expectation. One day, it wouldn't just be claws on the ground, it'd be an actual agent. She knew a little about how they made Negaverse officers. Having met a few, she even knew about some of the effects. All this had led up to a simple conclusion: She did not want to become one.

This was when the monster leapt out at her from overhead.

Tate ducked, just barely evading the long claws, and backpedaled. The monster prowled under a streetlight, providing her an excellent view of the thing's anatomy: claws that dug into and destroyed the concrete. Matted fur, glowing red eyes, black drool dripping from between bloody teeth, all of it combining together to form another variety of monster. She'd seen a few, not an extravagant amount, but a few; centipedes, wolverines…

Humans.

This time when the monster took a swipe, Tate made a small, surprised noise; it scored her leg, and a swift burning followed by a deadened sensation filled her with dread. Poison?--I do feel poison in my leg! said a sudden, inappropriate memory.

So it really made sense that an apple appeared floating in front of her. It almost glowed, calling out to… her? Maybe. She figured it couldn't hurt to reach out and take it. What could really happen? The monster--she'd kicked it in the face--was cowering now, so she just… reached out and took the apple into her hand.

The change came instantaneously. Understanding? Would take much longer.