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Gigi trailed along the street, too wrapped up in her own thoughts to notice any other people around her, even familiar ones. At the tail end of a long string of errands, her arms were laden with shopping bags - some groceries, some school books, and a cardboard cup of coffee, still steaming.

Loyalty, she thought, was a wonderful thing, particularly when you were flat broke and freezing. The stuff her mum had wanted cost more than expected, and she'd had a horrible moment of thinking she wouldn't be able to afford a hot drink for the walk home. But she'd been lucky - one of the half-a-dozen loyalty cards crammed in her purse had enough stamps to earn her a free regular coffee. She'd pretty much run across town to claim it. The last pathetic silver coins in her purse upgraded it to a large, and suddenly the afternoon was looking much brighter.

The next stop was home, she decided, to get all the homework out of the way. Sipping her drink, she was already rehearsing maths problems in her head, barely watching where she was going, let alone paying attention to the alleyways that peeled off into darkness nearby.

The sound was innocuous at first, an uneven clicking that barely impinged on the girl's thoughts. Gigi continued the long walk home, bags swinging, oblivious to the gaping alley mouths along the way, and all the horrors they held. Yes, Destiny City was a dangerous place, everyone knew that - but outside of the occasional nightmare, it didn't apply to her. It was a thing that happened to other people, like winning the lottery or getting on TV. She was much too busy to worry about terrorist attacks and monsters. The eerie noise only registered at all because of its lack of rhythm, a dissonance against the quick even clop of her boot heels on the pavement, jarring against the numbers she was trying to keep straight in her head. Maths without paper was too hard, she concluded. Especially with someone tap-tap-tapping right behind her. What was that, anyway? Did someone have a broken bike wheel or something?

She kept walking, a little faster. Now that she'd noticed it properly, it was all she heard.

Or a clicky pen? Some little dweeb was following her home with a clicky pen to see how long it'd take for her to crack. She gritted her teeth and kept walking, though the little noise was grating now. More than one pen? Army of dweebs?

Taking a deep breath, the girl stuck a hand on her hip and turned around sharply, ready to deliver a lecture to the noisy offender. The only sound that came out was a shrill little scream. Green. Snakey. Caterpillary. Army of legs. Oh god giant stinger.

In a tumble of scattered bags and spilled latte, Gigi tried to run.

The thing had too many legs, and Gigi only had two, and even ditching the groceries wasn't helping her gain any ground - in fact, the shopping littering the pavement was hindering her more than it. She stumbled over the fallen bags, an ungraceful retreat, listening to the clickety centipede feet in counterpoint to her own shaky breathing. How close was it now?

She risked a look back, which was a horror movie mistake, and she berated herself for not knowing better - it was not only far too close, but getting ready to strike, the sting catching the light.

The civilian let out another desperate scream, this one as loud and long as she could. If this was going to be her last breath, someone had better hear it.

She was still breathing. Not calmly, by any stretch, but the thing hadn't struck yet. She had time realise she couldn't outrun it, to look up into the monstrous eyes, see the stinger begin to move. And then it turned away.

There was someone else there. Someone had come! And was throwing things!

And the smart thing, the sensible thing, would be to get while the getting was good, but somehow she couldn't persuade her body to move again, like the thing had used some kind of freeze spell on her. Or Paralyze, or some other funky card game mechanic, she didn't even know. She was so *tapped*.

The thoughts swirling in her head didn't seem to want to connect. She should throw something too. There were, like, tomato tins and stuff. But that would require motor control. She needed to turn around and run some more. Was there anywhere to run? What if the monster ate the other person? What if it ate them both? With jerky movements, Gigi stumbled her way towards the nearest wall - for support, to be out of the way, she didn't know. She didn't want to leave while the monster ate someone else instead of her.

Castille wasn't exactly looking forward to spring, but a warm up in the weather would be nice.

She shivered and pulled her jacket tighter, trying to walk faster to warm up. All she had to do was get to the bus stop, and then it would be a nice ride almost to her house. Her hands went to her exposed ears, and she muttered something about getting a new hairstyle. In the summer the double buns kept the hair off her neck which kept her cool, but in the winter they made her ears freeze off. Through her fingers she heard a shout, and the girl stopped dead in her tracks. Shouting was never good. She skimmed in front of a crowd of people, leaning against a wall and trying to look around without being suspicious. Maybe it was nothing. But just in case...

The space behind a dumpster was room enough for her to transform. Eternal Sailor Grus stepped out and went up, climbing a fire ladder until she reached the top of a building. There was a quiet ping! of a youma, and a stronger feeling of a senshi. She honed in on the signals, running quickly to gaze down at the alley between a coffee shop and the bakery.

There was a giant.....thing type youma cornering a girl. From above, Grus couldn't tell just what it was supposed to look like, but it sure was gross from her vantage point. The senshi signal she felt was behind it. She watched the youma change its target to the senshi, and she took the opportunity of distraction to leap down from the roof, landing with knees bent and a palm open on the ground to steady herself.

"Hey!" She shouted, kicking a large-ish looking rock at the youma. "I don't know who made you, but they need lessons! Bring your ugly mug this way!" Confuse it. Good move.

Back pressed to the wall, Gigi tried to get a glimpse of her rescuer while the monstrosity was distracted. She wanted to see who it was, and more importantly, if they were all right. All she saw was flashes of white on the far side of the horrible wall of legs. It was easier to focus on the person than the monster in the way.

Another little startled squeak rose in her throat as it seemed a huge bloodied bird was falling nearby, but she stifled the sound with her hands as the figure resolved into a girl in a red feathered dress. It was a terrorist, she was sure. Terrorists were fighting the monster. There was a little bit of her brain that thought this was soo cool. And another little bit was still filtering the whole thing through CCG rules, where a snakipede monster was so much more cope-with-able than it was in a dark alley in real life. But mostly she was just very much hoping that it wouldn't turn around again.

Grus's eyes glanced quickly over to the other senshi, and she nodded in mute recognition. The stinger was threatening; it was amazing she had missed it before. She jumped away from it, moving in sharp actions to keep its attention.

"If you can, now would be a good time to run." She shouted to the civilian trapped in the corner. She felt a familiar aura, and smiled. So a cat has come to join the fight.

The tail whipped at her head, and she dodged behind a garbage can. A second strike put the stinger right through the apparently flimsy metal, and Grus rolled away from it, allowing the youma to take the garbage can with it. Refuse rained down as it angrily shook the stinger, trying to rid itself of the garbage can.

"Feather Fall Strike!" The cloud of feathers whipped around her, then whistled forward at her command. The snake-like head was lost in a feather cloud. It began to stomp, hissing loudly. Apparently paper cuts hurt a lot worse when they are on your face.