[BATTLE] I'M TELLING ON YOU! (Hygiea + Iris)

[LizzyMoo]

It all started with a random youma attack during the day time. One that took place in a crowded street where stores were lined up, one by one. Ellie had decided to do a bit of window shopping for some new outfits and accessories. She didn't go about this in the usual way, deciding to check in on the most random non-clothing stores she could. At the moment she was at a fish tackle store, looking at several of the fishhooks and debating which of her sweaters she could add some of those bad boys to when she heard the shrieking.

Bolting out of the store, she saw what looked like a giant slug made of sand slowly making its way down the street. Though it wasn't moving fast, it was still quite a bit of chaos. As it moved down the street, it essentially began to flood the ground with what almost seemed like quicksand. People were getting stuck, but it didn't seem like they were in too much trouble. The sand was spread out quite thin, so none of the people sank too far.

Making certain nobody was around, the girl went into the nearest alley, then popped back out as the yellow suited senshi, Sailor Iris. Now, a youma this size wasn't always difficult to defeat, but most senshi would have called for back up. In fact, Sailor Iris should have called for back up. Had it been anybody else from her team, she would have expected it. However, she was the captain. She didn't need back up.

Back up was for wussies!

So she went charging towards the slug, backing up against a wall, then pushing herself off it to leap towards it for a big punch. It would have seemed like a super powered punch if it wasn't for one thing.

The youma was made of sand. Rather than doing any solid damage, her hand just sank into the slug, causing practically no damage.

"Well... crap!"  

[chirigami]

Ridley was trying to order herself a frozen strawberry lemonade at Panera when the trouble began to circle the street. Well, first it was the annoyance in the cafe trying to get her drink - did they not realize it was hot and she wanted something kind of sweet and cold? Sometimes it was such a pain being only nine years old and people behind the counter being skeptical of her rudimentary skills. And it didn't help that Ridley didn't have the best of attitudes when trouble arose.

So, with what seemed like forever, she was finally out the door sipping happily at her frozen drink when a rush of people went by her. She stood in the midst of it all, looking around with curious orange eyes as the people went past just drinking her smoothy. This... seemed a bit familiar, deja vu really?

There were shouts, screams and weird wails and someone tried to pull Ridley away but she managed to rangle herself free with enough force against the arm that had tried to pull her to safety. She shouted at them but they were gone by the time any insults were able to land.

Now further from the epicenter, she had to make her way back, pushing past a few people even as the herd began to thin from the mass escape. Ridley had almost lost her finally achieved drink, which totally wasn't cool, during the whole endeavor so she was clutching a little closer when she finally got to a better view. People were stuck to the street and there was sand everywhere ... and a massive blob; another massive blob? Really?

And someone clad in yellow ... with butt wings. Oh hey, she knew that person.

Wait.

"Heeeeeeeey!" Ridley shouted angrily as realization dawned on her. ********* had told them not to go out alone and Iris was totally breaking the rules! That was totally not cool! Not listening to ********* was totally not cool!

After setting her drink on the ground, in a spot she figured was a decent enough hiding place - she had paid for it, she was going to damn well enjoy it later - Ridley reached into her little cat purse for her henshin pen. There weren't many people around, or at least from she could tell and hell, their attentions were obviously elsewhere, so she transformed without hesitation and made her way towards the older eternal - mindful of the sand on the ground, it seemed sticky.. people were stuck and complaining about it ... and of her.

When she got close enough, she yelled. "********* said not to go out alone!" She said to Iris, her hands on her hips as a few people were still struggling. "You could have called!" A man gave her an odd look but it was hard to tell what was on his mind; small child or small child yelling at older girl and not mad at slug.  

[LizzyMoo]

Iris yanked her hand back out from the slug's sand-like body. Physical force was not going to get her the results she wanted it would seem. Fortunately, the only thing this youma seemed good for was causing mayhem as it slowly made its way down the street. It wasn't really reacting like it was going to attack.

"********* said not to go out alone! You could have called!"

Turning around, a familiar head of tangerine colored hair was there to greet her. In reply to such a greeting, Iris snorted out "Not th'time fer this, squirt! If yer here... work on gettin' some of those people loose!" If physical force wasn't going to be enough to defeat this youma, then the kid wasn't going to help at the moment. Might as well try to make use of her since she was here though.  

[chirigami]

Not the time for this? Hygiea narrowed her eyes, it was true this wasn't the best of times to be arguing about this but she had always been taught to listen to authority and ********* always outranked Iris; even if she was the captain of their team. "********* said!" She repeated with a disgruntled noise.

Her eyes turned to one of the nearby victims and her unpleasant mood seemed to be apparent as they cowered a little as she looked at them; that or well, there was a 'terrorist' near them. Even in time of need and in danger, they still weren't getting the fact that well, they were in danger and the two senshi were trying to help.

One of them made a remark about how small Hygiea was, but it didn't catch her ears as she unhappily shoved her cat plush in her belt and moved towards one of the elderly gentlemen who had his knees and one hand in the sand. "Don't wiggle so much!" Hygiea hissed at him as she began to tug at him, not taking into consideration that he was, well, old and she might be pulling too hard.  

[LizzyMoo]

"Don't give a rat's a** what ********* said right now!" was the rather prompt response before Iris jumped up high into the air. It wasn't like when a normal person jump "high," but actually about a two story leap into the air. From her momentary airborne position, Iris glanced across the whole youma's body, in an effort to locate something that might have been a weakness. The sandy slug-like creature had two large eyestalks and two shorter stalks, much like a real slug, but between all of those stalks was a large bright red gem.

"Hello!" Not even seeming to think through her actions, the senshi attempted to land upon the youma's back, close to those 4 large stalks.

Unfortunately, landing on the youma was much like landing in its sandy ooze at the street level, and the moment her heels had landed on the youma, she began to sink down at a much more accelerated rate.

"Here goes nothing! Iris Rainbow Slicer!!" There was a slight bit of charge time, and by the time that rainbow had fluttered out from her hand, the senshi was already down to her waist in the sandy-slug's body. Haphazardly, she swung the rainbow towards the gem. It latched on as the sand just about reached her neck. Taking a deep breath, the senshi began to pull as she sank under the sand.  

[chirigami]

Hygiea had managed to get at least two people out of the sand while Iris had been attacking. The old man had managed a thank you, even if he had been hard to get out without having to injure his frail body. The other didn't want to have been touched by the likes of a terrorists and had run off without a word. The current one the little girl was tugging on seemed to be in shock so it was easy enough to pry him from the confines of stick sand. He didn't move when he was free and Hygiea didn't want to babysit or anything so she moved onto the next one.

She was still grumbling while she worked, though, mad at Iris for not listening to their cat even if she was the leader. Her head turned to the direction of the monster at the sound of Iris' attack. She had never seen it really, and kind of wanted to now even while her arms were around a victim's arm trying to help. But Iris was sinking into the sand and her orange eyes went wide.

"Iris?!" She yelled, unsure.  

[LizzyMoo]

There was no answer for Sailor Hygiea, though from where the elder senshi was currently located, it made sense there'd be no answer. Her voice was completely muffled to the point of just being a hum like the rest of the world outside of the slug's sandy body. And if Sailor Iris dared to say anything, she'd easily get a mouthful of sand. So instead, she pulled.

Outside, the rainbow was making quick work of this gem. There was a subtle amount of cracking initially, but soon enough the whole gem seened to split down the middle as the rainbow sliced right through it. If any were at the level with the gemstone, they would have heard a faint hissing as the energy this youma had stolen began to seep back out, escaping back into the universe.

The moment the gem was destroyed, the youma lost the only thing that made it anything more than just sand. No longer able to hold its form, the whole slug's body collapsed into a giant pile of sand in the street. It no longer had the quality of quicksand, releasing any civilian it had in its hold. Many individuals, once loosened from the sand quickly made their escape, making sure to get out of the area in case there was a second round with this monster.

The eternal senshi had felt all of her surroundings fall out from under her, which made her heart skip several beats. Fortunately, it wasn't too large a distance and she had plenty of padding in the sand, but it didn't make it any less frightening for her. The moment the sand caught her, she began to try to push her way back out of the sand, gasping for air the very moment she managed to break free of the temporary prison.  

[chirigami]

Sailor Hygiea's grip was still encircled around that poor civilian's arm as she watched what unfolded around her - the woman was even watching as well really. There were pretty rainbow effects going on and the crystal that the little girl could barely see snapped and broke and shattered into pieces allowing the sand to dissolve.

Well, it didn't totally and it only seemed to spread so far making Hygiea worry. Around her, the remaining trapped civilians got up as they were able to passed by her in a flurry but she wasn't paying any attention to them. Her own grip on the lady she had tried to help loosened in seconds, making the poor woman fall to the ground with a sharp and angry 'hey!' But Hygiea had missed that.

She raced towards the dune of dead sand slug and up the small hill towards the grasping and gasping Sailor Iris. Though she was small and couldn't make much of a difference she didn't care, but she grabbed onto the older senshi's hand and yanked. "This is why ********* said to call for back up when you saw a monster!" Hygiea hissed as she kept trying to pull on the girl.  

[LizzyMoo]

"Yer gonna pull my arm outta its socket!" the senshi snapped as she attempted to pull her arm away from the child. Save for that little scare at the end of the fight, the eternal senshi knew she had fought much more difficult youma in the past. This one was sadly a cake walk after she figured out how to defeat it.

She had managed to get herself out of the debris halfway before she then finally corrected the child. "And um... no... ********* didn't say that... that was me!" She dusted off some of the sand from her fuku before starting to trudge her way through the rest of the sand.  

[chirigami]

Obviously someone hadn't learned their manners like Hygiea had. Or in her case, had it grilled in her head through countless boring lectures, "You're welcome." She responded cheerfully yet firmly, a little bit trying to make a point.

She let go of the eternal senshi's hand, though it was more forcefully removed after the elder girl stood up and managed it. Hygiea's mind was about to wander when Iris stated her facts and the little girl's head snapped back to attention. "Nu uh!" She whined like the small child she really was, "I was there!" Well, both of them were, "she was sitting on my lap and said three rules!"

For this, she began holding up fingers with each rule she had remembered ********* stating, "one is to not patrol alone. two is to call for back up and three is to only kill ...." what were they called ... it was a funny word, crap she forgot again, "the monsters!" That worked.  

[LizzyMoo]

There was a very loud groan that was seething with frustration as the child explained why it was only ********* who had made the rules, not the team captain. "OH MY GOD!!!" It was rare, but her white gloved hands grabbed at the ends of the longer strands of hair upon her head and pulled. "I was there too, and I was th'one who came up with those rules! Th'cat was jus' repeatin' them back fer everyone else after I came up with them!"

About this time, she finally managed to get out of the sand completely. She paused in step long enough to slap a bit of the sand off of her thighs before she began again, walking quickly to find some sort of alleyway so that both she and the child could change back to normal. "And th'word yer lookin' for is youma."  

[chirigami]

Hygiea was honestly taken a little aback from Iris' sudden outburst. And the hair pulling, she had only seen such an action in cartoons and frankly it was kind of awesome to see someone trying to pull it off in real life. She covered her mouth quickly trying to hide a little giggle from the older girl's action and was relieved to see her stalk off moments after.

Not without removing her hand and sticking out her tongue of course. Hygiea wasn't sure she was convinced; Iris could be trying to give herself an ego boost by saying she had made up the rules after all. Though, with her fit and captain's position and stuff.

Her wonder over it, though, was replaced after Iris explained the correct term and Hygiea found herself running after the senshi of rainbows as quickly as she could. "Yo-ma?" She repeated, curious. "Why is it such a weird word? Is it even English? Even the other terms we use sound funny ... like senshi and chibi." Who made up these things? "Are they alien? I mean, those bad people think we're aliens and stuff, is that where it comes from?"  

[LizzyMoo]

Once the pair were in that alleyway, the elder senshi glanced back and forth to make certain they were alone. Sometimes alleys had random homeless people in them, so it was better to be safe than sorry.

"...I don't know why they use those words. If anythin'... it comes from th'cats... so ask th'f*ckin' cat 'bout that one!"

She didn't even have to close her eyes. One moment she was Sailor Iris, the next one, she had faded back to being Ellie Spectre. "...I doubt they are alien though..."  

[chirigami]

Hygiea frowned and then it dissolved into simply Ridley frowning as Ellie shifted forms herself. She hadn't bothered to check, but seeing the older girl do it... it seemed safe enough. But she was still frowning.

Some captain she was turning out to be. Didn't seem to have any good information and was disobeying rules; one's she claimed were hers to begin with. Two things she was going to have to talk to ********* about now. Well, at least she was going to be able to talk to ********* about important senshi stuff now besides just every day to day - not that she minded that stuff.

"Oh hey, I left my drink somewhere..." she realized, turning around to the mouth of the alley to see if this was the one she had left it by.  

[LizzyMoo]

The youma had been defeated. That mean she didn't need to hang out any longer. It was time to go back to being regular Ellie Spectre. Which meant she didn't have to hang around and babysit a kid who was clearly already out and about on her own.

She seemed to follow the child out to the mouth of the alley, but then kept going once she got out. She lifted up a hand lamely and said "See ya 'round!" It seemed as if the blonde had no intention on remaining behind for now.