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"No," said Avalon, from where she stood closer to the edge of the roof. She could teleport if she slipped. Kerberos, being close to hand, could not. "We're going to commit a murder. Do you have a backup store of starseeds, Kerberos?" It was a practical question; she found it important to have a little extra in case she came up against a battle that couldn't end with a flash-step and a sword through the chest. It happened, sometimes, senshi who were too fast or too keen to die on the first blow.

She flipped her hood down, leaned forward and squinted. "It's important to be prepared. As the Boy Scouts say, semper paratus." Then, she changed her tune: "By the way, who did your tattoos? I was thinking of getting one." Offing a man wasn't on her agenda, she had nightmares anymore--not of Bischofite but of Anthony Derouen, murdered in his home. Lucky for her, there were plenty of likely ladies--where 'plenty' meant two within easy sighting distance. Only one of them was near enough to a quiet, out-of-the-way location to get dragged into the shadows, though. "Follow me down," she ordered, hopping from the rooftop. She could've teleported, but, like, no point. The green-haired civilian she had her eye on was going nowhere particularly fast.

Tali was the poor civilian that Avalon reached out of the alley to grab, one hand headed for her mouth to smother any sound, the other swinging around her waist.

"That would be great," she said, her conversational tone never changing. In her chest, her heart beat nice and slow as she called her sword to hand, slipped an arm around the woman's neck in a chokehold. "Is he one of us, or is he… you know. Not."

To Tali, she said, "Oh, shh, dear. It'll only hurt for a moment, and your soul's going to a good cause!" Her blade radiated cold where the point rested, gently, between her shoulder blades, pressing through fabric. "If you're religious," Avalon added, "I advise you to pray. Wouldn't want you meeting your maker unshriven."

Luckily, Babylon was in the neighborhood. Under normal circumstances he'd be likely to steer clear of Negaversers hunting in packs - a general and a corrupt senshi, even a rookie one, were more than he felt he could take single-handedly. But the screaming civilian changed things markedly, and he could not stand idly by while an innocent person suffered. He changed his course, making a beeline for the target.

It didn't even connect that the general he was marching into battle against was Avalon until he'd already started his descent from the rooftops. Given the circumstances, he didn't think he had much of a choice in engaging her - better just suck it up and deal. The senshi was not doing anything. He was not Babylon's target for the moment. Instead, he brushed his fingers over his signet ring to glitch his movements and turned his attention to Avalon.

"Not tonight!" he yelled, charging at the general with his shoulder lowered. All he wanted to do was to get her away from the civilian, to give the girl time to escape. After that he'd figure out what to do next, how to stall her, how to get away-

Kerberos grinned, catching the girl and holding on - but his captive apparently was feeling at leas somewhat fighty, because she drove an elbow into his gut and the corrupt gasped, letting her slip from his grip.

"God ******** damn it get back here," he growled, taking off after her once he'd caught his breath.



Tali had no idea who had just saved her, but she was going to find the weirdo in black later and thank him. A lot. He'd given her the opportunity to get away, even if she could hear the dude with the blue hair chasing after her.

Suddenly, she stopped in her tracks, because a small vial of glowing blue liquid was floating in front of her and she had no idea what it was. She reached out and grabbed it, and something surged inside her.

And suddenly, she wasn't just Tali anymore.

"Yes, and just let me kill her," said Avalon, "and how the ******** do you know what we're supposed to be doing--"

That light. "Oh ******** s**t," she said. She didn't exactly trust Kerberos versus a knight and a page on his own yet. He was learning, but he wasn't learning that fast that she could leave him be and like, not expect him to somehow get himself dead. In her distraction, Babylon broke free, no doubt aided by that magic of his. "Kerberos, the civilian's lost, so you'd better move it too," she shouted, and she summoned her sword back to hand with an easy flick of her wrist. "Unless you think you can take the Page?"

She was going to ******** stab Babylon. Nonfatally. She thrust the blade forward, towards Babylon's back, and hoped he wouldn't clear the distance before her sword sunk into him.

Avalon's sword cut through Babylon's cloak and coat like a hot knife through butter, to use a totally cliche simile. He felt the blade slice into his back - a shallow cut, little more than a scratch, but cold all the same. "Damn!" exclaimed Babylon, but he made no effort to turn back and face her. The page was his first and only priority, and so he charged ahead.

"Oi!" hollered the knight, aiming for the corrupt senshi with a running tackle. "Get away from her!" They were not in any position to be able to win this fight, but maybe if he could injure the senshi enough, he could force a retreat? Or they could run? Or--

He slammed into the senshi with a deep-throated grunt.

Luckily for Babylon - but very unluckily for Kerberos - slamming directly into his midesction, which was still recovering from being stomped on just over a month before, was enough to drive all the air from Kerberos's lungs and send him doubling over, coughing.

"Ow, ******** you," he gasped, lashing out with a rather desperate punch. Goddamnit, he did not want his ribs re-broken, they were finally healing.



Mimisbrunnr let out a panicked shriek when Avalon's arm wrapped around her throat. She was well aware that she was in danger, even if the sword was no longer against her back.

"Oh god please don't kill me," she said, frozen stiffly in place. "I don't want to die, please, just let me go," not that she expected her pleading would do much good in this form. Her fingers tightly clenched around the vial in her hands, and she considered pouring the liquid in it on the woman holding her - but that would only serve to antagonize her, and right then, the newly-minted Page just wanted to go home.