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There was a horrible squelchy noise as Athene’s boot made contact with the youma, before what had once been a youma of the oozy variety exploded into dust.

It was late and with a sigh the dark-haired super senshi turned and started walking back up the alley. Athene hadn’t expected to run into the ooze-youma right as he’d made the decision to head home, make up a cup of hot chocolate and raid the biscuit tin for the cookies that had been baked that morning before curling up for the remainder of the evening and as a consequence had ended up staying out much later than initially planned.

Now that the youma was dusted however Athene wanted nothing more to make that cup of chocolate a reality, his tired footsteps setting a direction for home.

The aura seemed to explode from out of nowhere.

One minute it seemed that the dark-haired senshi had been alone, with only his (admittedly) rather mundane thought on the hot chocolate he was planning to make once he got home and the next an aura was bearing down on his direction at speed – an aura belonging to one from the Negaverse – and a strong one at that.

But there was no one in the alleyway, the brief glance around the alley had shown that it was empty of all but the dust from the dusted youma. That…

Maybe it was a whisper of sound maybe something else, but whatever it was Athene looked up only to see a dark form and a sharp point hurtling down in his direction. For a brief moment he stared at that sharp point almost as if stupefied, but then he frantically tried to move out of the way by throwing himself to the side.

He managed to just get out of the way, unable to hide the shudder as he heard blade bite into concrete. Any closer and he would probably have been skewered – an Athene-style shish kebab.

Athene had flung himself to the side with no thought to anything but getting himself out of the path of the form that had been plummeting towards him, but he scrambled to his feet as quickly as he could – the dark-haired senshi had been a senshi long enough to know that being down on the ground wasn’t good.

He bit his lip at the general’s words, his eyes widening slightly in recognition and not in a good way. He knew this general. Oh not by name – she hadn’t actually bothered to give one – no the dark-haired senshi knew this general because she was the same Nega-General that had tried to kill him at that senshi and knight meeting that chaos had gate-crashed and invaded. The one who, along with her pink-haired paper-clip wielding lieutenant sidekick, had also been killing knights.

Although this time she was speaking “I was only patrolling” he said at last while trying to take a surreptitious step back away from her and if successful then try for another. Given how their last encounter had fallen out Athene didn’t want to be particularly close.

Maybe if this had been their first meeting then Athene would have believed the Nega-General’s comment about being nice – however the dark-haired senshi had seen the self-same General casually stab a Page in the gut with that spear of hers as if it were nothing during that meeting that she and other forces had gate-crashed. And there was also the fact that she had tried to kill him during that self-same meeting.

“Actually not all senshi go actively looking for Nega-agents.” Athene personally hadn’t come across any since that that horrible meeting. He bit his lip “And patrol for me means keeping an eye out for the civilians and doing my best to help them out where I can...”

He’d gotten distracted and she wasn’t listening – she was lunging at him instead. With a yelp Athene tried his best to try and dodge out of the General’s path, while trying to keep an eye to that spear of hers.

Athene knew he needed to come up with a plan and quick – maybe if he had an opening for long enough then he could try for his senshi ability and hope to everything that this wouldn’t be one of the times where it decided to be stubborn.

The General didn’t seem inclined to give him a chance at an opening, relentless in her attack with that spear of hers. Athene (quite understandably from his point of view) wasn’t at all keen to feel the spear cut him again – once had been enough, but there was only so much he could try and dodge.

The first cut got him in the side just above his sash, a shallow enough slice, but enough for pain to bloom in its wake and blood to stain the white vest of his outfit. The second cut was lower, nicking the dark-haired senshi as he was a fraction too slow jumping back. The sudden bloom of pain distracting, causing him to almost stumble before he caught himself.

First and second blood to the Nega-General – definitely not good from Athene's perspective.

“I don’t understand why you hate us so much” despite its usual quietness Athene’s voice was vehement “What have we ever done to you?!”

He bit his lip, it sinking in that he spoken the words aloud – he hadn’t meant to. Besides it was unlikely given her behaviour that the Nega-General would even bother answer – not with the way she’d been attacking him.

Although shallow and not life-threatening, the two cuts the Nega-General had ‘gifted’ him stung. The dark-haired senshi wasn’t optimistic enough to hope that she would leave it at that though – not when she’d already tried to kill him once.

Biting his lip again, Athene clenched a fist and then hesitated – the general was close enough that the dark-haired senshi wasn't sure that he'd managed to use his senshi ability on her before she reached him. He looked at the spear – tried to bite back a gulp – which left pretty much trying to rely on what he'd picked up from his weekly self defence classes.

She wants to kill me.

She means to kill me.

For all of the Nega-General’s words about hanging out and playing the thought settled like a cold stone in the pit of his stomach. Besides Athene had already experienced this particular General’s idea of ‘play’, had seen how easy it had been for her to kill.

I don’t want to die. Although he was scared, (and who wouldn’t be when faced by some crazed lady with a spear), the thought echoed in the dark-haired senshi’s mind with a certainty.

He didn’t want to die – not here, not now and certainly not by whatever horrible method that the Nega-General probably had planned.

If he could use his senshi ability on her then if could give him an opening to get away, however right now not dying meant doing his best to fight, so that he could stay alive long enough to find that opening.

Relaxing his fist, Athene balanced on his feet and forced himself into the ready position that he’d been practicing at his self-defence classes. He would try to avoid the other’s spear when the General got close enough and then try to kick out at her.

The Nega-General was strong – stronger than him and she was fast – faster than before – much faster than the dark-haired senshi was expecting.

Athene tried his best to try and dodge the Nega-General’s spear as she kicked off towards him than he’d been expecting, while simultaneously trying to kick out at her as hard as he could.

He tried to kick out too enthusiastically and the move caused him to overbalance as he stumbled, flailing in an attempt to keep his balance.