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 Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2013 1:03 pm
Some nights, the world was fine. Some nights, the moon was out, and the stars were glimmering. Some nights the world was safe.
Most nights, it wasn’t.
In Destiny City, where there were more than criminals, night time was not a particularly safe place. There were monsters—and not simply the type of creatures they told in children’s stories. Tonight, the trees were rustling in a particularly menacing way; there was a breeze that seemed ominous, carrying with it strange whispers and dark promises.
And there was a youma following a rather unfortunate young woman home from work.
Slithering, snakelike, a creature that looked between a strange mix of a mole and an anaconda had been following Aubrey for a while now. It’s skin was black and secreted a strange sort of ooze that reeked of sulfur. It had remained hidden, despite its size, for quite a while—though now, away from the rest of society, it figured now was a better time than any to assault its prey. It billowed upwards, as thick around as the trees it had been hiding in. It opened its mouth and let out a hiss—one that sounded more like a car’s tires screeching to a halt than any natural noise.
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Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2013 2:18 pm
Aubrey was Tired, it had been a series of long days and longer nights which had been getting exceedingly longer as she picked up more shifts at work. It was very late at night that she was wandering home, and she had decided to take a short cut through the park to the apartment complex where she lived that was just on the other side of a small wooded path. During the day this path made a nice walk to work that provided shade when the sun was hot, but at night it was cold and ominous. Aubrey quickened her steps as the wind blew around her skirts when she suddenly heard a shrieking hiss behind her, she spun around ready to face an attacker... or so she thought, but when she saw the creature in front of her she knew that no amount of training would help her, there was only one way... Run as fast as she could. Without another moments hesitation she took off running down the path hoping to maybe out run the creature, or find some way out of this situation, or someone to help.
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Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2013 10:20 pm
For a typical civilian, it made sense that she wouldn't know how to deal with a youma. They were tricky, after all. Tricky and unpredictable.
There were no eyes on the creature, not that could be seen in the darkness. It's sleek black scales reflected lights from the lampposts and moon, however by no means did this look to be a natural creature. It coiled upon itself before rising higher. It's face seemed pointed at her--and then, in a blink of an eye, its head harpooned towards her. It was an unlucky miss--but only by inches. The sidewalk cracked where its head had plowed into the cement—and even to someone with no experience, it should have been obvious that it wasn't interested in playing nice.
Drawing it's scaled head back, the youma shook its head, paused, and then slithered after again, slamming its head into the ground nearby once more. There seemed to be little direction in where it was aiming, other than just near the girl. It seemed to be blindly attacking her--which would have been a logical conclusion, given that it didn't seem to have any eyes.
The snake was relying on her footsteps--on the noises she made as her feet hit the ground--to track her. Twice more it had tried to headbutt her to keep her from moving, and though it had cracked the cement on several different places, it didn't give any indication that it was suffering from it.
Then, it finally aimed right. Head pointed, it aimed to headbutt Aubrey, and just as its scaled head brushed her back, there was another force working against her; someone grabbed her arm and yanked her--quickly--from the beast, out of its path.
If Aubrey wanted to count herself in any way lucky tonight, she should have been happy that she owed Remarque money. Had he not been so fed up with this youma stealing his victims already, he might not have acted. He might have thrown a fit and gone home and just let it drain all the energy it wanted, tonight.
But he had seen her face—and he recognized her. And that was enough for him to intervene.
It did not mean he was gentle with her, however. He flung Aubrey away with great force, planting himself between the creature and her. "Don't move," he commanded in a stern voice, eyes locked onto the creature as it slowly removed its head from the sidewalk. It looked to be in pain and struggling to recalibrate itself—and that was its own fault; a few good facefulls of cement was more than enough to mess anything up.
In fact, Remarque almost wished that was enough to chase the thing off. After talking with Tsui, he had come to regard youma with a bit of apprehension; he was against killing people, but they were monsters—right? Hell, there was no way this thing could have ever been human. Not when it looked like an overgrown reptile.
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 3:57 am
Aubrey ran faster than she ever had before, but it didn't seem to matter, she could feel the wind rushing past her back as the creature chasing her lunged towards her and felt her foots falter when it missed but cracked the sidewalk. She didn't know how much longer her luck would hold out, it didn't seem to be slowing down despite several head injuries and she was nowhere near home.
Suddenly she felt the simultaneous forces working on her when there was a sudden dull pain in her lower back and an even more unexpected pain in her arm wrenching her in a different direction. Fortunately she recovered enough sense when she was in the air to roll when she hit the ground and had started to get up but with his command she stayed still in a crouched position.
Watching from the ground Aubrey observed the man who may have just saved her life, he was... Odd. He wore brightly colored clothing and she could almost feel power radiating off of her, this must have been one of the... Senshi? Something or another that she had heard of from customers or on the news but never actually ran into, well whoever he was he was saving her life so she shouldn't judge what he was wearing, just do what she was told.
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Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2013 9:14 am
He was quiet for the moment—the man dressed in such strange colors. He seemed very serious—very comfortable in dealing with a creature that looked like it could have easily swallowed him whole. He didn’t look at her as he spoke, paying careful attention to the creature in front of him so he could try and gauge how best to deal with it.
He hadn't been dealing with this damned thing all night not to pick up the fact that it was blind as a ******** bat. It had run into benches and trees several times. What Remarque couldn't tell though, was how it was finding prey. He didn't know if youma could sense auras, or if this one could smell or hear. But either way, it was worth a shot.
And he was pissed that he'd been out here for hours, in the damned cold—and had nothing to show for it. The only real question was what he was going to do about it—chase it off, of get rid of the ******** thing.
“If you aren’t standing, I want you to stand, very slowly.”
The snake like behemoth stiffened; it tilted its head, like it was listening for him, pinpointing where he was. Its tail coiled, and Remarque spared it a quick glance before he started walking.
Deliberately, he was walking loudly, and each time he took a new step, the creature tilted its head a bit more so that its ear was almost always parallel with where he was. He was watching it as closely as it seemed to be trying to watch him.
A strange, forked tongue flicked out into the air, a trail of vile acid spilling out of the youma’s mouth as it did so. If Remarque was sizing him up, this thing seemed to have the same thing in mind.
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Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2013 4:59 am
Aubrey gulped and slowly pushed herself to a standing position, this was certainly turning into a strange night, and she was thankful that Remarque had showed up, even if she had no idea why. She also had no idea what this creature was, and even what Remarque was, she wanted to ask questions but judging by the way the creature was following every sound Remarque made, it would probably be best to wait till later to ask anything. As she was standing she noticed several places that twinged painfully so she cataloged them, her shoulder and arm were on fire, but most likely not broken or dislocated, her hands and knees were torn up from the impact of the ground, and somewhere a rock slammed into her thigh as she was rolling, but all in all she was in a lot better shape than she would have been if that creature had completed his attack. Aubrey's attention shifted between the Youma and Remarque wondering if she should make a break for home while the creature was distracted, or if it would then be obligated to chase her down and eat her... Probably best to wait for instructions.
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Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2013 12:38 am
Remarque kept one eye trained on the creature and tried to glance down--to see if there was something he could throw to distract it for just a second.
The youma never gave him any time. He was making enough noise that he couldn't hear the civilian anymore, and though the creature was large and of a similar chaotic energy than Remarque, it had already suffered significant head injury and seemed to be willing to take whatever it could get. In an instant, it's head was flying through the air, trying to skewer Remarque.
Being an eternal senshi had its perks; Remarque was just barely able to dodge and made a run for it while the creature was still trying to recover from its miss. "Captive Audience," he said--and in an instant, strings descended, awkwardly fastening around the creature. He hadn't had any idea of his attack was going to work--how do you puppet a snake, anyway?--but it gave him a little bit of time. He ran, faster than any human should have been able to, and scooped up Aubrey under one arm.
He knew how long his attack lasted on a normal opponent, but hadn't the faintest how long it would last against something of that size. All he knew was that he could run faster than this girl could, and he stood a far better chance against that thing that she would.
Bolting between trees, it was clear that Remarque was making good distance based on the sheer fact that the creature was writhing and hissing that god-awful noise and didn't seem to be getting any closer. As he ran, he still held the girl under one arm while he used the other to brush foliage out of their way; he held her carefully, albeit not particularly gently. "Are you hurt?" he asked only, focusing only on getting them out of there.
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Posted: Sat Mar 02, 2013 11:01 am
Aubrey gasped as she was picked up roughly, it was certainly an odd experience being handled like a toddler by a kid that didn't look much older or bigger than she was, where the hell did this guy get all of his strength and speed? Her mind was reeling as fast as her surroundings were passing her and she barely registered his question. "Considering I was attacked by a giant snake thing, not too badly." she responded feeling all of hurts twinging as they ran, she felt blood trickling down her leg, probably from one of knee wounds, she thought fuzzily that she would get blood on his ridiculous pretty outfit as they bounded through the trees. Despite his care she was slapped by several branches and what not, but she figured it was better than being eaten or whatever that thing would have done to her so she didn't complain, just tried to make herself less of a burden.
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Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2013 10:19 am
"Yeah, well. How about you try not to do that in the future." He ran, for a little more than a moment, before slowing down. There was no sign of the youma, so far as he could tell, and considering that he had gotten slapped a few good times by stray branches, he was more than willing to give himself a few seconds to let the stings ebb away.
"You should be more aware of your surroundings, girl. If I wasn't there, do you know what could have happened to you?" he asked, voice scolding, but not really angry. Youma were dangerous, but he didn't want to have this girl running off and talking about how bad they were. He understood that the Negaverse had only the best intentions, but their youma were dangerous and uncontrollable—and seriously messing up Chaos' reputation through stunts like this. "I doubt you would have made it home in one piece."
…Hell, he doubted she'd have made it home at all.
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Posted: Mon Mar 18, 2013 10:42 am
Aubrey's lip stiffened stubbornly, "It's not like I went out tonight with the intention of being attacked, its never happened before and I wasn't expecting a giant snake to pop out of the bushes, sorry to have inconvenienced you by needing saving." Aubrey responded mulishly, probably not the best course of action considering this guy just saved her bacon, but it wasn't really her fault.
"I mean how do you prepare for giant snake things?" She questioned more quietly as she tried to pull herself together as memories of the short attack went through her head, she was in good shape, but the snake would have easily killed her, but she didn't know how to deal with Youma.
"Can you put me down now or is it still following us?" she asked after a pause, it wasn't exactly a comfortable position, and he was pressing down on one of her scrapes on her side.
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Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 5:21 pm
"Hmm? Oh." Remarque glanced behind him, skimming the area one final time before he deemed it safe enough to put her down. "Yeah, here you go. Sorry. I figured it better to be safer rather than sorry. Are you doing all right? …It didn't get you too badly, did it?" he asked; it was a bit difficult for him to express concern.
He wasn't a particularly emotional guy on most occasions, and there were few people who he would really work himself up about their wellbeing—and while he had nothing against Aubrey, he wasn't going to throw a fit just because some youma had scraped her up. She was a client—and an interesting one—but little more. To lose her would be unfortunate, but it wasn't worth sticking his neck out too far.
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Posted: Wed Apr 10, 2013 1:52 pm
Aubrey smirked humorlessly, "Not too badly, I'm sure I'll live, I think I much prefer your manhandling over getting beaten into a pulp and eaten." At least she assumed that is what the creature would do. Once she was on the ground she stretched slightly wincing as strained muscles and scraped skin protested, but again it was not the worst beating she'd ever had and she was most certainly alive, a fact that was true only because this strange guy took the time to save her, she looked up at him and attempted a small smile. "Thank you for saving me, I'm not usually this touchy..." She responded as a way of apologizing for her earlier snippy remarks. "Do you normally run around rescuing people in this park or should I try and find an alternate route home?" She questioned dryly.
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Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2013 7:54 am
"Mm. I do what I can around here," the senshi shrugged; he wouldn’t have done it for any civilian, but hell—if it would give the Dark Mirror Senshi a good name, he might have to make a habit of it. "I'm in the park perhaps a bit more than I should be, though I branch out when I can. Things aren't usually so bad around here. You've just got a bit of bad luck, I imagine. Are you sure you're all right? …You look a little roughed up."
Though this war had taught him many things, he was still of the mind that women were more fragile than men. It didn't care if he'd had girls almost hold their own against him—his pride wouldn't allow him to accept that a girl might be as good as him—he still thought of them all as fragile, delicate flowers.
Except for Raven. She was a powerhouse.
"If you need a few moments to recuperate, I can wait. Otherwise, you'd probably best work your way home." He had half a mind to leave her now that she was safe, though this had certainly made his evening a little more interesting; he was a bit reluctant to go back to the same old spiel so quickly.
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Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2013 8:17 am
Aubrey nodded, "I'm fine." she responded and took a few experimental steps to be sure that she was. She managed it just fine without falling on her face which was always good for her pride. "I've had worse." She added stretching her arms across her chest trying to keep the wince from her face. Aubrey glanced around her trying to gauge where in the forest she was and how close to home they now where. She turned in a slow circle but she did not recognize this part of the park. "Where exactly did you run to?" she questioned finally allowing herself to acknowledge that she was lost.
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Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2013 10:43 pm
"There's a nature path just a bit away. It's not an unpopular place in the park, but I didn't want to risk that thing running into more people or anything."
Which was a lie, actually; he'd sort of been hoping that there would be more people out here. If that thing was distracted with easier prey, it meant he had less to worry about in terms of keeping this girl safe. Things all worked out, though—even without the human sacrifices.
"I, however, have a shortcut to just about anywhere you want to go. Any popular destinations you want to be dropped off at—any landmarks?"
He might not have known everywhere in Destiny City, but having lived here for all his life gave him that much of an advantage, at least. Stalking the nights as a Dark Mirror Senshi wasn't exactly a drawback, either.
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