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It had been a while since Athene had patrolled by the park, but that was the direction that the dark-haired teen had found his feet taking him after henshining up behind an alley way dumpster hot drink to hand.

That he had a hot drink in his hand was not unusal, it not being uncommon for the dark-haired senshi to patrol with a hot drink to hand although he tended to do it on late nights or in winter, however for those who knew him well the choice may have been a little odd since instead of the syrup and coffee combinations that he favoured the cup contained black coffee and although it was laced with sugar - lots and lots of sugar - the base was still black coffee and it wasn't even his first of the day. Since the nightmares his coffee intake had gone up - a lot.

"That's a lot of sugar" the comment came from close to the ground, the source a small tabby bobtail with a jade green collar from which hung a little book.

Athene shrugged slightly, but otherwise made no comment, content to let his thoughts drift.

He was able to walk in silence for a few moments and then his 'self proclaimed' partner asked "So can we go to Athene."

"No." It had become something of a familiar conversation between them since Liryn had plonked himself in his life since the warehouse incident - the warehouse incident that he really didn't want to think about.

"But why not?"

"I don't really want to visit my asteroid tonight" Athene said. Only to have Liryn point out that he never seemed to want to visit his asteroid. Which was kind of true since it was something that he'd kept putting off and putting off even with his new year's resolution to visit it at least twice. "I..." His voice tailed off, head turning automatically in the direction where it came from. "Did you hear that?"

"I heard it" Liryn told him "And I sense a youma" he started to trot off through the trees "I think it came from over there."

Now that Liryn mentioned it, Athene could too, the thing's chaotic aura heavy on his senses - mayhaps somewhere close then.

"Hey hang on" Athene called as he turned to follow the cat, "Don't go char..." but Liryn was already charging off. He heard a roar from further from the trees as he dashed after the cat and ran faster hoping that he'd reach the youma in time. He caught up with Liryn near the youma and then had to stop and blink for a moment as the thing was clawing at what looked like a jacket across its face. "No" he said quietly when Liryn looked like he was about to charge the monster, wondering what he'd ever done to be stuck with a cat that seemed to lack in the common sense department given the discrepancies in sizes between the bobtail and the youma. "I'll handle it." Then repeated "I'll handle it" when Liryn looked like he was going to charge the youma anyway. "Can you try and see if you can find whoever it was who was screaming earlier."

He gave an internal sigh of relief when Liryn said "I'll try" before slipping for the trees.

Which left Athene with the youma, the youma who by now had pulled the jacket off its face. Better get started I guess Athene thought to himself, whilst trying not to think too hard on how big the thing was, instead he pitched the mostly full cup at the youma and called out "Hey, over here." Hopefully that would get the thing's attention on him and off whoever the thing had been chasing.

The cup connected with enough force to knock the plastic lid off, causing the cup's contents to spatter on and then drip down the youma.

Athene didn't kid himself that it would do much, but at least it seemed to do the trick of turning the thing's focus in his direction as Liryn darted between the trees and disappeared out of his immediate field of vision. Athene knew that it wasn't enough to do any sort of real damage though, even if the bits of dripping coffee and undissolved sugar did make the youma look kind of silly. Athene also knew that he had to keep the thing's attention on him so that he buy Liryn some time to find out the source of the screams that had attracted their attention and hopefully get the source behind them away from here. He managed to find what he needed in the form of a nearby rock and, whilst keeping his eyes on the youma, Athene darted forward to scoop it up before lobbing it at the reptilian thing.

The stone probably did as much good as the cup of coffee, given how big the thing was, but from the roar coming from the youma and the way the thing was starting to swivel around to face him it seemed that he had at least succeeded in turning the thing's attention so that it was now squarely on him. I hope this gives you enough time Liryn he told the guardian cat silently as he clenched his left hand into a fist and the first part of calling on his magic.

Despite the fact that calling on his magic was a chancy thing given how unpredictable his base and super attacks were, Athene reckoned that there was enough distance between him and the lizard youma for him to at least try and risk it.

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Much as Liryn would have indeed preferred to stay and give Athene a hand with the overly large and overly nasty looking youma, he had made for the trees as asked in search of the source of the scream that he and Athene had heard earlier as asked, easily slipping in the space between the trunks.

Apart from the chaotic aura of the youma, the only other aura that he was picking up on was that of Athene's, the dark-haired senshi's aura blazing warm and strong.

There was a sudden roar from behind him, suggesting that Athene had maybe done something and inexplicably a sudden smell of coffee on the air, but Liryn kept trotting forward, his small paws padding quietly on the undergrowth.

It didn't take long for him to find the purple-haired girl, peering in the direction of where the youma and Athene were, reaching her in time to hear her query what she should be doing,

Although he was perfectly capable of doing so, Liryn didn't answer her although he did make for her direction and rubbed himself up against her ankles with a little mew once he was close enough whilst wondering how he could get her to move away from here so he could go back and help Athene with the youma.

Liryn had found himself pausing, because he had thought that he had felt a spark of something..

But the something, whatever it was had been - was already fading-

And then the purple-haired girl picked him up and he felt the spark again.

It was enough for him to take a chance as he gently placed a paw on her chest, even as she told him that they had to be careful.

"I can give you something that will be able to help you with that thing over there" he said cheerfully - because if his suspicions were right then she was going to find out that he could talk anyway...

And it was probably better that she find out sooner rather than later.

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"Blue beads of Nazar – intenstated!"

Athene called on his magic as the lizard thing started to lumber in his direction and he directed the beads that formed towards it.

He watched the beads, a part of him hoping that the magic wouldn't pick now of all times to be tempermental - that the magic would actually work...

Because if it did then it would give him a bit of a breathing space - and would also hopefully buy Liryn more time to encourage the source behind the earlier scream to get out out of here.

The lizard-like thing charged towards him, and by extension to his magic, the beads surrounding the youma and keeping it trapped to their circle.

Athene couldn't help but feel relieved, even as he glanced around to see if he could find something better than a take-out cup of coffee–

Well make that the former cup of take-out coffee.

But either way the thing was trapped - well at least trapped for now - because Athene knew that his magic wouldn't keep the thing trapped forever.

And as he glanced around he couldn't help but wonder again how Liryn was faring with source behind the scream.

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As it happened Liryn was used to the girl's reaction and whilst she had eventually ducked behind a tree with him, he was only picking up on two auras - that of Athene and the youma.

"Yes I can talk" he said cheerfully, his voice still cheerful as he looked up at her. "And yes I can give something that would be able to give you a better chance against things like the thing over there. He wriggled a little so that he could free a paw as he spoke and vaguely waved it in the direction of the youma "Which is something called a youma."

And then looked back up at her for a long moment before wriggling enough to slip free.

He waited until his paws touched ground before launching himself into something that looked suspiciously like a backflip, causing two items to come clattering down - the first of which looked suspiciously like some sort of phone, whilst the second appeared to be some sort of oversized pen.

"I rather suspect that you're a senshi - or at least have the potential to be one" Liryn said, his cheerful voice serious as he padded over to the two items and gently started to nudged the one that resembled the oversized pen in the girl's direction.

"You'll need this if so and it's called a henshin pen" he nudged at it some more, pushing it somewhat closer before shifting to stare up at her some more.

"And in order to use it you'll need to hold it up and call out Mneme Power, Make-Up and do it with as much feeling as you can muster..."

And then he added because it was something that Liryn felt needed saying "But I also can't make you use it" because whether to do or not was her choice "Although if you don't then I would strongly suggest that you run."

It took a couple of tries, but it appeared that his hunch had paid off, pink light engulfing the girl, followed in the aftermath by the warmth of a base rank order senshi's aura flaring into being.

Her outfit was pretty neat as well, cream with pink and teal, with small fluffy wings adorning a teal ribbon atop her hair.

His purplish eyes glanced up, into her blue eyes at her question and whilst there wasn't much time for explanations - at least not at this point in time - Liryn could and had every intention of telling the newly awoken Sailor Mneme the basics.

"Your name is Sailor Mneme when you're like this" he said "And you are what's called a senshi. You're stronger like this and faster too - and you have magic as well."

There was another thud and screeching cry from the direction of the youma, reminding Liryn that Athene was still facing the thing alone - and whilst Liryn knew that the dark-haired eternal was strong, it didn't mean that he wanted to leave the dealing of the thing entirely to his friend and senshi - even if he would do so for a little longer.

"As a senshi you have magic" he continued, frowning slightly in concentration for a long moment before adding "And I'd try 'Mneme Daze' if you want to try using it," because magic was always helpful in cases like this.

"It's not everything," he admitted, because it wasn't "But if you wouldn't mind helping me and Athene with that youma back there then we can try answering your questions afterwards."

And whilst Athene wasn't there to confirm, Liryn knew that Athene would be happy to help out with any explaining.

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Another screeching cry had Athene looking back at the youma just in time to see the beads keeping the thing contained start to glow.

Looked like time was up.

The beads shattered freeing the lizard-like youma from their confines, clawed hands batting at the fading shards for a moment before the thing's eyes swivelled balefully in his direction.

Athene's hand closed on a small branch, although compared to the claws on the youma it looked more like a twig, as the thing took a lurching step in his direction crushing the fallen take-away cup and what appeared to be some sort of frame underfoot.

Athene took a step backwards, his eyes still on the youma, and for one brief moment he wondered if he could pull of his magic for a second time before hastily abandoning the thought as the thing took a second and then a third lurching step forward.

A blur of pink, teal, purple and white stopped a short distance front of the youma, resolving itself into a purple-haired senshi with fluffy little wings attached to a teal ribbon in said hair.

A second senshi?

Athene hadn't picked up on the aura, although that was probably due to his attention being mainly on lizard-ouma.

The youma raised a clawed hand just as the senshi shot what appeared to be a spiral-cone-shaped light beam at the youma causing the thing to take a step backwards before pausing and looking around it's surroundings as if suddenly confused as the clawed hand dropped back down to its side.

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It seemed that Mneme's magic caused confusion of some sort, well at least Liryn was kind of guessing that it did based on the suddenly confused way that the lizard-like youma was slowly looking around–

Purplish eyes looked up at first Mneme and then Athene "Now seems like a good time time dust the youma" he said, because right now the youma wasn't swinging it's claws about - adding because he wasn't a sidelines cat and fully intended to help both Mneme and Athene "I'll help."

Of course his method of 'helping' was of the let's charge the youma variety - because feline claws were always good for helping in situations like this one - at least to Liryn they were.

Athene started to turn towards Liryn because he had been on the receiving end of the small tabby bobtail's brand of 'helping' in the past - but the purple-haired senshi spoke up before he could say anything.

It didn't seem like her words about the youma startling was particularly addressed to him though, although her next words were definitely directed at Liryn - a Liryn who was already cheerfully agreeing in the affirmative –

And having the small mauvian making a ruckus was significantly better than him decide to try take on the much bigger youma. Particularly as he was not a one cat army.

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Purplish gazed up at Mneme brightly at her question "I can do that" he said cheerfully as he glanced towards the trees, taking in the trash can that was already somewhat leaned over...

It wasn't plan A - plan A had been to aim for the youma directly and introduce the thing to his claws - but to Liryn's way of thinking plan B was equally as valid.

"I can definitely do that" it was hard to tell how much of that either Athene or Mneme had gotten however as Liryn had already started to dash towards the trees, although he made sure to angle towards the trash can as he did so, deliberately knocking against it.

It leaned, for a moment as he continued on his trajectory towards the trees, tilting even further–

And then he heard as it lost its fight with gravity and with a large clatter toppled over.