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Penelope Seneca was a girl who worried quite a lot about her appearance. Did this dress make her look fat? Would her skin be clear or covered in acne? Would her classmate think she was a trollop if they saw her outside of school with a skirt just barely above the knee? If she wore one of her very few Transformers t-shirts... would someone make fun of her? Image was important; image was what people took in first, what they based all of their initial judgments on. No, Penelope didn't think that image was all there was to a person, but she recognized its importance.

That was why the teenager fidgeted with the garnet bracelet around her wrist, why she smoothed down her favorite Transformers shirt, checked her jacket again for lint, wondered again if jeans was the best pants choice. This meeting was important, perhaps the most important meeting outside of her responsabilities with the Jovians. This meeting was so she could apologize to Harper and get her best friend back.

She slid her phone open, nervously re-checking the text that Harper had sent in response to her own. Yes, she was in the right place; though closed, the ice cream parlor was in a location about equal distance from their respective homes. Yes, it was getting close to the right time, a litte later in the evening than she would have liked, but she couldn't be too picky. Penelope bit her lip as she waited, wondering how things could have gottent this bad over a misunderstanding. It was mostly her fault; she shouldn't have reacted so poorly to Harper's joke. She shouldn't have been as hurt as she was, and she definitely shouldn't have stormed away the way she did. She was willing, even eager, to accept the blame, just as soon as Harper came and allowed her the opportunity.

Whatever talking or other such plans the two girls had were about to be put on hold. Mica had been unusually busy as of late, attending meetings and collecting medical supplies. She had less time then normal to collect energy, so she was trying to make up for it by gathering as much energy as possible when she was out on patrol. That meant attacking targets she wouldn't normally pick, at times and places she wouldn't normally attack.

The Negaverse Captain flitted across rooftops, out earlier then she normally patrolled. Places were more crowded then she liked, so she was stuck searching for easy marks. The next building she landed on was the ice cream parlor, which had too many people in it for her tastes. However, the people tha hadn't made it into the safety of the building yet were fair game.

Spying a blue-haired girl that could potentially be dragged away with minimal winesses, Mica dropped quietly from the roof to the ground behind Harper. Not one for foreplay, Mica was standing and making a grab for the girl within seconds.

Penelope had just slipped her cellphone back into her pocket when she saw Harper, smiling softly and waving her over. The quiet greeting prompted her to speak as well, but it was interupeted by the appearance of a figure behind her friend, "Hey... Harper, look out!"

Without waiting to see if her warning would be enough, the black-haired teenager dashed forward and grabbed hold of her friend's hand, tugging her in the direction of the street beside the icecream parlor. Penelope might not have her fuku on, but she still had all the memories from her time in uniform... and to her mind, black clothing plus weapons always equaled Negaverse. There was no time to explain to the other girl why they running, not now. They needed to get away--more specifically she had to make sure Harper got away!

And if they couldn't get away all together... then maybe the maneuver would at least give Penelope the time to henshin up without an icecream parlor full of people watching.

" Tch."

Typical. Find seemingly easy prey, easy prey escapes; escapes with help, that is. Without that interference, Mica would've had the girl. Still, all was not lost. She might not be the strongest physically, but she was fairly fast on her feet, so Mica took off in pursuit of the girls, sticking to the shadows whenever possible. She'd stab them if she got close enough.

Penelope did not immediately answer her friend just because of her desperation to get away from the enemy that could be pursuing them. She also didn't know exactly what to say, and her adrenaline flooded brain would not allow much coherency as she blurted out, "Negaverse... will steal our energy... or worse..."

As they ran, she slid the henshin pen from her jean pocket, mentally thankful that it had become somewhat standard procedure for her to keep it with her all the time. Once she felt like they were a safe enough distance away, for the time being, the black-haired girl stared at the mystical object in her hand momentarily. She knew what she had to do... and just prayed that she had time to do it before the person pursuing them caught up.

She hadn't wanted it to be like this. If anything, Penelope would've wanted to sit down and reveal to her friend who and what she was in private, in a safe place where she could apologize for hiding it for so long, where she could explain everything she knew and, for at least one moment, stop the lying. But this situation robbed her of that chance, so all she could do was hold her henshin pen aloft and call on the power of her moon, "Pasiphae Power, Make-Up!"

After the maroon light disappeared, Sailor Pasiphae planted her heels in front of Harper and began to look through the shadows for the Negaverse officer. The defensive only Senshi knew that she was pretty much a sitting duck, but she didn't dare call her shield... not when a powerless girl stood behind her. Still, she raised her hands in a defensive pose and whispered a warning to her friend, "Harper... as soon as the fight starts, you need to start running again as fast as you can." The normally quiet girl's voice was strangely serious; she did not have time to argue.

By the time Mica caught up with her targets, one of them had seemingly run away and vanished. In her place stood one of those magical vermin, decked out in surprisingly subdued colors. Not that it was to her advantage; it made her more unique, and thus memorable.

Approaching slowly, allowing her spear to tap on the ground like a cane, her eyes flicked from the Senshi, to the civilian, and finally back to the Senshi.

“ You are?”

If the Senshi used her attack then she’d learn her name by default, but it was good to ask. Not that knowing it would make a big difference; once her question was answered, regardless of the answer itself, Mica planned to attack.

Sailor Pasiphae was honestly too busy trying to quell her own fear to pay much attention to the cat and its antics; she only had eyes for the Negaverse agent in front of her. Her eyes was immediately drawn to the weapon tapping along the street. A spear--not a metal tipped javelin as her first opponent's had been, but with some kind of orange crystal at the end... still, the similarity to that of the person who had frightened her so badly did nothing to settle her nerves. And then her opponent spoke... wanting to know her name, or rather the name of the place from which she drew her power. The Senshi's mouth hardened into a firm line as she tried to convey a sense of strength and security she truly didn't possess, and answered curtly. "Pasiphae."

With the question answered, she leapt into battle with a kick, aiming her first blow for the Negaverse agent's legs and hoping to knock her down. Pasiphae had little faith in her ability to win this fight. Dusting youma was one thing... fighting the Negaverse officers themselves was another. She had a grand total of two battles with actual, human opponents under her belt--one that she had been lucky to escape with only a scratch, one that she had won simply because her opponent lacked a weapon. If she had had the time, had the opportunity, she would have called on more powerful, more experienced allies... but as was too often the case, right now she was the only one who could stand up to her foe.

The feline’s presence was rather stupidly overlooked or ignored as Mica focused instead on the Senshi in front of her. She didn’t want to be caught off-guard if the Senshi attacked. And attack the Senshi – Pasiphae – did, though rather clumsily. Mica was easily able to read to upcoming kick and sidestepped out of the way, twirling her spear in an attempt to whap the Senshi on the side.

“ That your best shot, Pasiphae?”

Nevermind that Pasiphae could be one of those Senshi with especially annoying magic, Mica simply couldn’t let such a pathetic attack slide without remark.