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Leda burst from the doors of the quaint french restaurant, nearly tripping her way down the stairs as she fled from her attacker. Pungent slices of lemon and fish entrails slipped from her outfit and hair while she scampered toward the park. She panted heavily, her breath rising from her lips as puffs of steam, panicking all the while that her attacker pursued her. The echoes of her footsteps formed his hot pursuit, and the sound of restaurant debris splattering on the ground were his projectiles aimed toward her.

The zoot suit travesty was but moments from catching her, and she felt the urgency of escape tugging her forward.

However, with Leda's energy spent and her legs painfully sore from running without reprieve, she had little choice but to locate a hiding to dissuade her relentless pursuer. With a quick scan of the environment, she noted a variety of buildings at her disposal, but few alleyways. However, the park on her left looked like a viable option. She bolted to the right, shedding a new layer of piscatorial pieces, and ducked into the nearest cluster of trees off the beaten path.

With a quick scan of her environment from the sanctity of the bush, she found no sign of her attacker. Even though she peered into the distance and squinted down each street she could see, there was little evidence that her pursuer was even... pursuing her. The only signs strewn across the street were of her arrival, and the various garnishes she shed on her way into the park. Unfortunately, they led directly to her hiding spot...

Leda sighed, and slowly emerged from the bush, dejected and ashamed. Not only did she lose miserably to a member of the enemy, but she ran ceaselessly all this way for nothing. Aside from that, anyone with two brain cells to rub together could track her down without breaking a sweat. "Sheesh, I must be the worst Senshi on the planet..." She muttered to herself, as she ambled toward the benches. Even as she sat down, kids scattered from her due to her rank smell.

Amidst her sulking, she overlooked the lovely girl sitting next to her. Her curls were simply fab, and she had a sharp fashion sense to boot. "Um..." Leda blinked a couple times; she hadn't been confronted with an offer to help when she was transformed like this. Could she have ulterior motives? Maybe she works for the enemy? No; how could an everyday kid possibly be involved in a war like this? Unless... She's secretly an enemy dressed as a civilian and offering to help to make Leda suspicious and then pretend to help for a while only to turn her over to the evil bad guys. Or not.

"Actually... Can you help me get out of here? I stink, and I think someone's chasing me." She took a few brief glances of her surroundings in search of her pursuer, but found no evidence of him. However, her gaze did land on a child nearby, and his loud declaration that she stunk brought a heavy blush to her face. "And, these kids are making me uncomfortable."

How shameful. First she flees a battle, then she runs straight into a park and disturbs all the residents therein, and now she's resorted to asking a stranger for help escaping said battle. She definitely needed to learn how to behave as a proper senshi, and learn how to handle herself in confrontations. Not only that, but she didn't want to find her alter ego in the newspapers for causing a 'stink' in the park... Even the terrible pun made her wince.

But where was there to go? Surely the stench of fish would lead anyone to her whereabouts. "Then again... maybe I should hide in a dumpster. No one would know the difference." With a dejected sigh, she picked a raw fish head off the shoulder of her outfit.

The young senshi was wholly relieved to hear the black-haired girl offer her assistance. "Oh, thank you! Thank you!" She got up abruptly, knocking the backs of her knees against the bench. After a slight wince, she managed to free herself from the table and bench combination, as she was highly enthused about seeking safety with this girl. Aside from that, perhaps she could find a place where she could shower and rid herself of the revolting stench she wore. "This probably wasn't the best place to go, but I couldn't think of anywhere else."

Come to think of it, jumping in a dumpster would've been a brilliant idea. She sighed at the thought. What made her think that running straight into a park was a good idea? Like the girl said, someone could start taking pictures of her. She could end up on the face of the newspapers, complete with horrible stories about how she hates small businesses, especially the kind that cater fish. If she had this girl's sense, none of this would have happened.

Unfortunately, she knew she was involving a civilian in a fight they had no business in. Thanks to her, this girl might be targeted by the Negaverse, or somehow hunted down. What if senshi left a mark on the people they touched or something? She might be like a blinking light on some strange anti-senshi radar. That wasn't good. No, that was downright terrible. Despite her thoughts, there was nothing she could do to somehow reverse their meeting, and there was no way she could prove she'll be targeted by the Negaverse for the rest of her life either. Leda was fully aware that worrying about it solved nothing, but at the same time, nothing stopped her from worrying.

She moved with the girl at a jogging pace, constantly looking over her shoulder and scanning the horizon for any signs of the enemy. She hadn't felt anyone nearby, but she was still new to the process of detecting her enemies. She couldn't be sure that she'd escaped, not yet.

"Oh, thank you!" Leda called toward the black-haired girl as she was half-dragged through a growing crowd of people. The slew of amateur photographers aiming their cell phones at her caused her great discomfort. She was not a shy girl, but she didn't find solace in the thought of landing on the front page newspapers the following morning. No matter which way she looked at it, following this girl was the best course of action.

Leda held on tightly to the civilian's hand, and elbowed her way through the crowd, punctuating each contact with an apology. This isn't good, she thought. You really messed up this time! With the growing amount of people focusing on her, she felt her face flush with embarrassment. There was no way she'd get away from this mess without repercussions, and her mind continually wandered back to the poor choices she'd made after escaping that battle in the fish restaurant. If only she'd had the common sense and judgment of the civilian she followed... Then perhaps this whole mess would've been avoided.

Her footsteps drew to a halt in front of a group of drunken neanderthals. One of them threatened to turn her into a Facebook sensation, and though she always wanted to become an internet superstar, this wasn't her ideal path to fame. "Sorry, I've got to go!" She made a dash between a pair of the drunkards and her shoulder collided with one of them. The man was knocked off balance and fell to the pavement. Even though he showed no serious injuries, she still paused long enough to belt out an apology before turning around and following the black-haired girl once more.

Once she'd parted from the gathered crowd, she managed to catch up to the girl's side. "Where are we going?" Hopefully the place she had in mind was far less populated than the park. Leda still kicked herself for the obviously poor decision. "And, um," She paused, panting as she ran, "will there be a shower? I could really use one of those..."

That was an understatement. She was fairly certain she left a tangible cloud of stench behind her.

A shower. Finally, a shower.

Leda knew that powering down here meant this girl, whose name she didn't even know, would be aware of her identity. They strongly cautioned against that when she was introduced to being a senshi, though she never fully understood the reasoning. If the black-haired girl was a Negaverse agent, she'd surely be pounding Leda's face into the ground right now, but she wasn't. Could that mean the girl is just waiting for the right moment to strike or something? Oh, maybe she wanted to get pictures of Leda powered up and powered down and submit them to the newspaper. Then again, wouldn't she need a camera? She didn't have one back at the park. Or, maybe she was secretly an assassin and she didn't want to tango with Leda while she was powered up.

There were far too many possibilities. Would she be willing to risk all that to escape an agent that may or may not be following her? Probably not. Would she be willing to risk all that to clean herself up?

... Definitely.

Leda huffed as she trotted wordlessly behind the ice cream parlor and powered down. She was happy to discover that her clothes remained untainted by raw fish. "Whew," she commented audibly. "I don't wanna do that again." After catching her breath, she emerged from the seclusion of the alley to meet the girl once again.

Sirsce hadn't noticed it before, but the black-haired girl appeared exhausted. her face held a faint shine of sweat, and she stood breathless at the mouth of the alleyway. "Um, are you alright?" She didn't want to push the girl into dragging her back to her house if she was going to faint from all the exercise. Sirsce wanted to take it easy getting there as well, but that atrocious fishy smell prevented her from lingering in one place for long.

She just remembered to introduce herself; where were her manners? "Oh, and thanks for helping me out back there. My name's Sirsce." She smiled bashfully.

Wait, what? The girl who saved her from the paparazzi was a senshi? Sirsce was wholly shocked. "Oh my god, really? That's so cool!" She giggled. "I didn't think I'd meet a- um," She paused to think over what she wanted to say. "Well, um, you know. I just didn't think it would happen!" She jumped in place ecstatically. "This is soooo amazing! Oh, oh, just imagine all the stuff we could do together! I mean, you know, um, secret stuff, and I could pay you back for getting me out of there by giving you a makeover!" It was a dream come true.

Or she was simply getting incredibly carried away and petrifying the softspoken girl.

"Oh, er, sorry about that. I get carried away sometimes." Right, Sirsce. Back to the topic... Um, what was the topic? Oh yeah! "Right, um, your house..." She contemplated their choices. "What's wrong with taking the bus? Are there, like, Negaverse agents on it? Is it rigged with explosives? Is it secretly a giant youma in disguise?" She was beginning to scare herself; maybe the bus was a terrible idea. Better stick to walking.

"Um, on second thought, let's walk." Sirsce started walking in the direction of the main street, but hesitated only a few steps into her journey. She had realized that she hadn't the foggiest idea where Penelope's house is, and she could very well be walking away from it. "Uh, which direction is your house? And can we avoid the main roads? I don't really want to hear people talking about me when they're coming home from the park. Or hear about myself on the news. Or, uh, the youma-bus. I want to avoid that too."

Leda looked perplexed. Giant monster busses never happen? Busses aren't usually attacked? What did she mean when she said she needed to shower before they got on the bus? Was there a rule that everyone has to shower before getting on the bus? She must've broken that rule a dozen times by now... But she hasn't been arrested for violating the bus hygiene rules. Maybe she should turn herself in! She didn't want to be a renegade or an outlaw. Unless...

She must've meant that Leda is far too stinky for others to tolerate. That must be it.

Though she still preferred the tale of giant youma busses to being unconscionably stinky.

Leda followed Penelope without hesitation. Rather, she was quite happy to simply walk with someone who wasn't trying to kill her or snap a few photos of her. "So, um, are you good at the whole sailor thing? Or are you like me and kinda new?" Considering the girl's quiet disposition, Sirsce guessed she hasn't seen much action. Not that she had, per se; rather, she spent most of her time staring at the inside of a dumpster or running for her life. Penelope might have a few pointers for her if she's been around the block. Otherwise, they'd make perfect partners in crime. Save for the fact that they wouldn't be committing any crimes.

Then again, there were those hygiene laws. So much for not being a criminal.

Leda's wandering mind jolted back to reality when she heard voices coming from the far side of the alley. Were they heading this way? "Um, do you hear that?" She whispered softly. "Should we hide?" The voices were still too far for her to make out what they were saying, but she wanted to avoid any further confrontations. If the two were photographed together, Penelope could be in serious trouble with anyone who wanted to hunt senshi. Not only that, but Leda could end up the next viral video to grace YouTube. "Ooh... What if they come this way?" In response to her growing nervousness, she crowded against Penelope's back.

Over a year? Wow. Sirsce couldn't even fathom being a senshi for over a year. If she survives that long, it'd be nothing short of a miracle. Though she gave patrolling and maintaining her noble image every ounce of effort, it was met with nothing but disaster. Her recent fiasco with the amateur paparazzi and the smell of putrid piscatorial only served to highlight her failures. "Wow, you've really been one for that long? Ooh, I could learn so much from you!" For a moment, she imagined herself valiantly fighting off Negaversers and whittling their strength away until they surrendered to her cause.

However, her dreams of grandeur were punctured by the sound of the boys calling after them. She froze in panic while Penelope provided a cover story. Uh oh... What do I do? If they come over here, they'll smell me! Ooh... Should I play along? Maybe if i cough they won't come close! Oh, but some people don't care if you cough and they just come close anyway... I know! Quickly she caught hold of Penelope's hand and tugged her in the opposite direction of the boys. "I feel sick!" She exclaimed loudly.

After making an obviously contrived vomiting sound, she edged around a blind corner. "Do you think they bought it?" Sirsce whispered. Inwardly she hoped they did' not only would she be proud of her acting abilities, but they would be in the clear until they reached Penelope's house. All she heard was laughter, but the sounds slowly faded into the distance. Perhaps they were leaving after all?

"Um, I think they're gone now." After peeking around the corner, she turned and smiled at Penelope. "It worked!" To punctuate her statement, she jumped up and down excitedly. "Maybe now I can finally get a shower! Oh, and um, i'm sorry for being so stinky."