Welcome to Gaia! ::

The night was young and so was the youma - long and lanky, stalking the streets like a twisted and tall cartoon man made of shadow. It was born recently, probably mere hours ago and sent into the world to wreak havoc. It overturned trash cans and benches with its long arms, pushing into and scraping against cars parked at an apartment complex. Alarms went off in a shrill scream, piercing through the night air and it shrieked along with them. People's lights went on in their homes but they dare not go outside. Monsters were outside.

It was drawn to light, and in that moment, began to claw its way up to a third story window that remained innocently open. People were screaming and hurriedly trying to call police all while the Tall Man's rakelike hands curled around the sill. Its breath was ragged, like a transient with the flu, fluid in its lungs making it wheeze uncontrollably. But youma didn't need to breathe. Inside lay two young children cuddled together in their beds, sound asleep to the chaos lurking just beyond their dreamscape. Parents and children alike were yelling, screaming, and all of it to no avail. The youma soundly ignored them all, intent on chewing the little ones to bits. Dinner was served.

A sharp hiss escaped the creature's lungs as concrete suddenly connected with it. The children inside the room it was leaning into had awoken with a start and shrieked for their parents. The meal forgotten, the youma turned to face one particular senshi. A long purple tongue exited the mouth to scale across sharp teeth. A dinner of powered starseed would far outweigh any number of small, mundane meals. A starseed could sustain a youma for a ridiculous amount of time, leading all of them to hunt for the tender morsels as often as they could get onto earth.

And now one was staring the youma right in the face. Creeping across the metal roofs of the covered parking, it sighed and sagged this way and that. There was no way she could have infinite ammunition, but being a youma, all it could think about was digging around in her chest. Lovely lovely senshi chest... that's where the real meal was.

After pondering something or other for a few moments, it suddenly dropped onto the pavement like so much tar and skittered towards her, using long sharpened nails to swipe at her lower legs. It kept low to the ground like a lizard, hissing and snarling with inhuman lungs as people screamed and pointed. Some were even crowding to the windows, wondering what the terrorist and the monster were up to.

If youma could know what they were up against, none of them would go after senshi. Thinking was not part of their design, so when Acubens charged ahead at blinding speed, the youma wasn't sure how to react at first. All it could see was a starseed getting closer and closer... and then a table leg, square in its shoulder. The youma managed to ooze partly out of the way of the charging senshi, but the weapon she carried cracked over its right side and sent it sliding sideways. Craning its long neck, it moved to bite down on the senshi's leg as she passed, wanting desperately to feel flesh in its teeth and blood in its throat. Elongated fangs were mere millimeters from her thigh when crimson boots connected with its skull.

The creature black as night shrieked in surprise and backed up, slamming itself (and its injured shoulder) into a large metal dumpster. Acubens remained unharmed. One eternal senshi perched herself atop the metal parking coverings close by, but did not wish to interfere, especially if the other senshi wanted to finish it off. Brown eyes watched and waited.

Once its vision had cleared, the youma stalked (halfway, really, it was more like a lumbering limp) out into the open to try at Acubens' legs again. It was getting desperate and the heaving noises coming from its lungs were a good indication of how much damage it had taken. The eternal senshi nodded towards the one less experienced, but no doubt just as brave. Kallichore admired that in new senshi. "If you need assistance, let me know." she said coolly, and made herself comfortable.

The youma didn't know what to do next. When its senshi meal came rocketing back at it, what one would have called a brain shut down and the body felt the full force of Acubens' impact. It shuddered and skid across the ground on its neck and face, slowly leaking the tar that it would have called blood. Too much was left as a smear on the ground and when the body finally came to rest, it was disintegrating - indicating the senshi had saved the day. The youma's final breath left in a slurred wheeze and the eternal senshi perched high above dropped to the ground. She nodded in approval.

"Well done!" she said, turning to the senshi decked out in neutral colors. Judging by the call name of the attack, Kallichore guessed she was the senshi of dinosaurs, which, to her, sounded really, really cool. Other senshi had butterflies and kittens and googly eyeballs but this girl had a sphere Kallichore could relate to.

Now all they needed was a senshi of laserbeams and/or chainsaws and they'd all be set.

The eternal walked up to Miss Dinosaur and went to inspect her. "Are you hurt? It looked like it wanted to take a bite out of you. Any injuries?" All the while, some residents of the building came out to watch the two senshi converse. Obviously the little children were up, watching in wide-eyed fascination. The girl had dinosaur strength, and what little kid didn't love dinosaurs? After a few moments of silence, some of them started to clap and cheer, raising their voices in praise for the newly-anointed defender of justice.

Kallichore saw the teeth and raised her eyebrows. She was foolhardy like that once. She still was, on occasion, and didn't once hesitate to bite one particular Negaverse agent on the leg when the opportunity arose. But bearing one's teeth at another senshi? The eternal stood her ground. "Me? And what is that supposed to mean, exactly?" She tilted her gray head and watched Acubens with a curious eye. Some of the children behind them were mimicking the senshi's attack, gritting their teeth and roaring like dinosaurs they'd seen in movies. One little girl even had her hands scrunched up like a T-Rex.

"Looks like you have a few fans, senshi. I'm glad you could handle the youma on your own. I didn't want to intrude if you wanted a killing blow. Some people don't like that." Brown eyes looked off into the distance somewhere and focused on nothing in particular. "I sensed that one at a distance, but then I felt your presence. You got here first. I'm impressed. And you managed to not only dodge, but kill it. You should be proud of yourself." The eternal made to pat the senshi on the shoulder, but decided against it. Acubens didn't seem like the type who wanted to be touched. "You saved many lives tonight. Don't ever forget that."

Her voice was even, but Kallichore had to wonder what all the menacing attitude was all about. Who had awakened this girl? Didn't they tell her anything? ....oh god was it Derpraline? Kallichore hoped to whatever higher power was out there that it wasn't Derpraline.

(*has permission to do this!*)

Being unable to accept one's blessings and subsequent responsibilities was understandable. Kallichore herself was unusual in that she loved what she did right off the bat. She hated being a regular, mundane person, but she could understand how hard it would be to come to terms with awakening to a higher purpose without your consent or prior knowledge. The eternal was quite accepting of these emotions and went through them herself one or two times.

But taking out one's rage and frustration on civilians? Unacceptable.

Kallichore made to follow Acubens on her infantile tirade, apologizing to the bewildered people and their children. She tried desperately to keep the anger from playing across her face, and as soon as she caught up to the other senshi, red gloves hooked a part of her bodice and all but dragged the girl around the corner. Fueled by distrust and utter embarrassment, Kallichore couldn't stop herself from wrapping one hand around the senshi's neck to shove her forcibly into the brick wall of the apartment complex. No one was around to see them, but Acubens' attitude left Kallichore with precious few options. She had to learn. She had to know the truth.

"Listen." came a rasp from clenched teeth. "I don't know who awakened you. It doesn't matter now, but let's get one thing straight - whether you like it or not, you were blessed with powers to save people, not shove them around. Not yell at them. We have a hard enough time with the public without babies in fukus throwing temper tantrums."

Kallichore was using her weight and the strength given to her by the regalia she wore to hold the senshi in place. Her grip was firm and not hard enough to choke, but her other hand on Acubens' bare chest had a bite to it. "And secondly, I do not set anyone up except Negaverse agents and their friends. Evil people. You see this?" Her eyes made to point at the crisp white of her own fuku. "People in white don't pull s**t like this. I was going to kill that thing before you stepped in, but no, I let you have the battle. I watched and I would have stepped in if you needed it. That's what senshi do. Senshi don't summon youma - evil people do."

Bring her face mere inches from Acubens, Kallichore finished her speech in a low tone. "So you have two options - you can never pick up the pen again and pretend like this never happened. Or, you can put on your big girl panties and learn to live with who you are." And with that, the eternal stepped back and let the senshi fall to her feet.

Kallichore cocked her head and huffed, a puff of her gray hair moving with the air. "Funny how civility didn't seem to make a dent in that thick skull of yours before. Now that you're in time out, you want to whine?" The whole darling bit smacked of all the other names senshi had called her in the past - hobo, psycho, ragdoll, dearie. Really people, is it so much to ask to be more creative? Acubens was acting like a child and to Kallichore, deserved to be treated as such.

"You stopped being a senshi when you take out your anger on civilians. Being a senshi is a privilege. It's the Negaverse that goes around stealing energy, killing people and summoning monsters. You want to be like them? Fine. I'm sure they'd be more than happy to take you into their arms, but that will simply prove my point." She shook her head, sighing in an almost resigned sort of way. Her tone wasn't angry anymore, but simply... remorseful? She felt more like a parent with a spoiled child than anything else. Whoever awakened this senshi either didn't explain things properly, or they butted heads like nobody's business.

Rubbing the bridge of her nose with two gloved fingers, Kallichore shifted her weight onto her other leg. "At the end of the day, what matters is that those kids are safe. They have families to return to and they can sleep the rest of the night knowing someone saved them. They admired you, you know. Some people still think we're out here to do good, not to harm people." Brown eyes stared at the pavement in thought. "What matters is that we're alive and can return to our own families and we can fight another day."

"Pfft." was all she could say.

The gray haired senshi shook her head in disappointment. "No matter what you may think, I was in your position before. We all are, when we first start out. It's where you go from here that really defines you. But enough about that. You aren't listening and frankly, I'm tired." Brown eyes narrowed and Kallichore wondered if there would be a time when she'd have to beat Acubens in a serious way. She hoped it wasn't the case. The fewer they lost to the arms of Chaos, the better.

Lifting an arm in half a shrug, the eternal turned away. "Maybe you'll want to talk later, after you've grown up a little and calmed down a great deal. Until then, keep yourself and those around you safe, senshi." In a brilliant flash of white, Kallichore lit onto the roof of the next apartment building and bounded off in search of more youma to kill. Perhaps the city would be safer yet tonight.