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Typical. Just when Megiddo thought that she had this magical space warrior thing down pat, she hit some kind of invisible difficulty threshold and then everything got hard. So far tonight, she'd just barely avoided a run-in with not one, but two lieutenants out on patrol, and then as soon as she'd managed to sneak away, deciding to check out a rustling in an alleyway revealed...

Well, she wasn't quite certain what the thing was, just that it was now chasing ******** THIS ******** s**t," cried the page, as she skidded around a corner. The crashing of trash cans behind her let her know that the beast was still in hot pursuit. She didn't want to think about what it would be like to die at the jaws of a giant, radioactive bear, with horns like a ram and a tail like an orca and jowls that dripped acid. But she was sure imagining it! <******** ALL OF THIS," she screamed, making a leap to the top of a nearby bus shelter. The bear caught up to her quickly and began to pound the sides of the structure.

The bus shelter shook. Megiddo clutched her pitcher and stared down at the youma. Was she going to die here? After all she'd been ******** no.

With her hardest swing, the page chucked her pitcher at the bear's snout. It connected with a crunch and bounced off into the street. The bear howled menacingly.

"Well, that was my last idea," she said to it, adjusting her footing uneasily as the bus shelter shook perilously.

The youma turned its attention towards the newly-arrived senshi, hackles rising. It growled, and the spittle that sprayed from its mouth sizzled when it landed on the concrete. Appetizing, thought Megiddo wryly, now that her life was no longer in immediate danger. Her pitcher connected with the bear's snout again, and it howled once more. Pretty, the senshi had called her. Megiddo's heart fluttered, but this was no time to preen.

The page's eyes locked onto the flash of silver skittering across the pavement. She leapt after her pitcher, snatching it up and spinning as quickly as her feet would carry her. She was getting better at this super-powered parkour thing! The bear was advancing towards the senshi now, and Megiddo was grateful for the intervention, but one good deed deserved another.

"Hey, over here!" she yelled, and as the monster turned and began to advance towards her, Megiddo threw her pitcher again. It connected with the bear's domed forehead with a thwack! and bounced towards the senshi.

"Grab it!" she yelled to the green-haired girl. "Like Monkey in the Middle!"

Except, you know, painful.

"You hear that? We think you're ugly!" Megiddo hollered at the youma, running to retrieve her pitcher. This would almost be fun, like some demented game of volleyball, if there weren't an acid-spraying monster lumbering back and forth between them. She could see holes in the hem of her skirt, from here its spittle had caught her already.

"Yeah, it is!" she called to the senshi, winding up to throw the pitcher again. "I don't know how well it'll last," she added. "I've never tested it out like this before!"

She chucked the pitcher, and it bounced off the dome of the youma's head again. It still looked to be in pretty good shape as it clattered towards the senshi. "It's just not very effective!" Megiddo called, backing away from the youma as it advanced on her. "We're gonna need, like, a bigger boat!"

Why couldn't eternal senshi always appear out of the blue to rescue her?

Tortali was just about to agree with the page that this wasn’t working when she saw the laser beam or something hit the youma. Well, that was convienient. The senshi was sure that this was the help they needed and looked around expectantly for some Eternal Senshi or super cool knight, but was slightly disappointed upon seeing the cat. Of course she was more confused than disappointed when the cat asked for her henshin pen, so drew it out, giving it to the rather large feline. “Okay…here you go?”

What could the cat even be thinking? This wasn’t the time to steal her pen…Or the time to do whatever. Unless…it was the time, in which case, carry on, cat. Carry on.

Tortali looked over at Megiddo and shrugged. "Uh...keep it busy then? I'll just be a moment, I guess?"

Julienne took the pen between her paws and concentrated for a few seconds, closing her eyes. After a moment, the pen began to glow and changed shape. The cat looked absolutely exhausted when it was done and picked the pen up in her mouth, trying to get it back to Tortali. “Here. You were ready…so here. Take it and say ‘Tortali Asteroid Power, Make up, okay? You’ll be able to get stronger.”

With that, Julienne let herself flop to the ground, breathing rather heavily. “As for me. I’m just going to nap for a minute. Good luck.”

And that was that.

Megiddo didn't have a whole lot of time to stop and gawk at the changes her new friend was undergoing, partly because she was trying to preserve her own life. However, she got the gist of it - new outfit, new powers, second wind. Maybe not an eternal senshi popping out of the sky to save them, but a cat and a newly-minted Super was pretty nice, too!

"Alright!" she cheered, turning around raising her pitcher for another swing. If the senshi was enthusiastic - and she was clearly more experienced than Megiddo, her fresh upgrade was all the proof she needed of that - then Megiddo was enthusiastic, too. "Let's finish this!"

Clutching her weapon in both hands. she ran at the youma, leapt onto its back, and brought the butt of the pitcher down between the beast's eyes. CLANG. It staggered, like she'd disoriented it. Megiddo kicked off from its back, trying to stick her heels into its sides as much as she could. "I think we're close!" she called to the senshi as she landed a few yards away. "One or two more hits might do it!"

Of course she didn't know that for certain. But one could always hope.

Megiddo grinned at the thought of finishing the youma off. How considerate of the senshi to offer! "It would be my pleasure!" she said, watching the senshi run towards her. Once she was clear, Megiddo took off running, pitcher raised. "Take that!" she screamed, slamming it down between the staggering bear's eyes. The youma roared ferociously and then shattered into dust.

Megiddo laughed as she stepped backwards and straightened out her skirt. "That's how it's done!" She curtseyed to Tortali. "Thank you for the help," she said sincerely. "We work well together!" And that wasn't a compliment that Megiddo gave lightly. Part of her expected something to happen now, like for coins to rain from the sky like in Scott Pilgrim, but apparently fighting crime was a thankless job with lousy pay - she'd just have to live with that.

"My name's Megiddo, by the way," she added - it hadn't gone unnoticed that the senshi was calling her Purple. "What's yours? And you wanted to check on the cat?"

Frowning, the page approached the sleeping cat. "She said she was going to nap, right?" she asked. "And, uh, you might have to fill me in. I'm a bit new to this - what's with the talking cat, anyway? Is she, like, your boss?"

Julienne hadn’t been sleeping, she had watched the battle and felt a strong sense of pride when the youma turned to dust. If she could have, she would have been out there scratching the heck out of the giant bear, but…shooting the laser and upgrading Tortali had taken a lot out of her, though it was nothing that some salmon and sleep wouldn’t cure.

When the two girls walked over towards her she closed her eyes and pretended to be sleeping, there was no use them thinking she was just lazy after all, since she wasn’t…wasn’t really lazy.

Okay. Well maybe just a little bit, but it didn’t mean she didn’t try.

She felt herself being lifted and asked if she was alive and she cracked an eye. “Of course I’m alive…” To the page she looked over and tilted her head. “You’ve never met a guardian cat before…Megiddo, right? That’s what you said your name was?”

Julienne held out a paw towards her. “My name is Julienne, and Megiddo, if you want…and will feed me…I’ll come home with you tonight and answer anything you want to ask? I’m pretty smart when it comes to guardian cats, since I am one…Plus you seem like a girl with a lot of good food…”