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Babylon didn't come by this area often. The stores were all very fancy, far more than he could ever hope to afford - or had the taste to enjoy, frankly. Besides, his presence tended to attract property damage, and he didn't like to tempt fate - not when he was surrounded by so many beautiful and expensive things.

A crash of breaking glass rang through the night, followed by the wail of a burglary alarm. Babylon looked around, trying to pinpoint the source of the commotion - it was maybe an intersection ahead, around the corner. Even if it was a simple robbery, well, he'd be on the scene faster than the police.

Picking up the pace, he rounded the corner and quickly surveyed the scene before him. There was glass everywhere, as well as several dozen scattered pearls. Babylon looked up, then groaned. Not again.

It was the same jewelry store he'd wrecked with Sutai while fighting a youma several years ago. The forces of Chaos were, apparently, rather unlike lightning.

The youma was currently crouched in the center of the selling floor, the inky quills on its back glinting in the streetlights. Babylon called his lantern to hand, and prepared to fight.

Babylon looked over at the civilian, biting back a swear. She was just a kid, younger than his sister - a good kid, by his assumption, since she'd heard the breaking glass and come running. He hesitated.

The youma did not, noticing her quickly, its head tilting as it regarded her. Dark lips parted, revealing row after row of jagged white teeth. It tensed, limbs going tight, broadcasting the coming movement - "MOVE!" cried Babylon, and then he leapt for her, fingers brushing over the totem at his throat.

Reut caught the youma mid-leap, its talons digging into her snowy flank. The snow leopard snarled as she and the beast hit the ground, tangling in what was sure to be a losing fight.

Babylon looked down at the girl he'd knocked over and hurriedly got to his feet. "You need to get out of here," he said, pulling her up. "Run!"

Behind him, Reut snarled her last and vanished in a flash of blue light. Babylon called his lantern to hand and turned towards the youma, other hand raised protectively in front of the civilian. "Go," he said. "Now."

The page flared into being behind him, her aura so bright in his mind's eye that he swore he could see her on his peripheral vision. Babylon couldn't look at her - not now, when he was carefully baiting the youma away from the shop. This fight would be easier out in the street (this small business owner had been through enough misery at his hands).

The monster lunged again, and Babylon swung his lantern, catching it squarely in the chest. The force of the blow sent it flying, and the daze it was in when it landed bought him some time.

He looked over towards the page. She wasn't wearing a sigil or style he'd ever seen before, but then he remembered, Ganymede. Okay, then. This was going to be fun. He was going to give her a crash course and then, hopefully, they'd take this thing out together.

Babylon leapt to the girl's side. "Okay," he said. "You're a page, I'm a knight, we use magic to fight bad guys. That thing over there's a youma. Fairly strong one, too. We need to dust it or it'll go attack civilians, and that's bad."

"Just follow my lead, okay?"

Looking back towards the youma, he realized it had recovered from the earlier blow. Babylon took a few steps away from the page, lantern swinging slightly in his hand. "You might want to find something heavy to throw," he called over his shoulder as the creature lunged for him.

Babylon fought the youma back, catching it across the abdomen again with his lantern. The force behind the hit sent it sprawling. He looked briefly back towards the page, noted the trash can she held, and dove quickly away from the stunned monster.

"Now!" he hollered.

The trashcan struck true, hitting the already dazed youma with a crack of breaking bone. The creature opened its mouth, emitting a low, pained gurgle - and then, after seizing briefly, crumbled to dust.

Babylon got to his feet and dusted himself off. "Yeah," he said, turning to the girl. "We got it."

Vanishing his lantern, he closed the space between them and offered her his hand. "Babylon Knight of Mercury," he offered. "You would appear to be... Someone of Ganymede. It's a pleasure to meet you."

He paused, then added. "I know your princess, and I'm sure she'd be thrilled to know that you exist. We could give her a call?"

Okay, so maybe he'd gone a bit fast on the briefing and expected her to just go with it, but some people did! Babylon couldn't be blamed for trying. "Sorry, my bad," he said. "You, uh, you grabbed that necklace, I guess?" He gestured to her weapon. "It's kind of a... a magical totem object. Or a weapon, I guess, but the word's kinda misapplied. They usually appear for the first time when you're in danger, so you can turn around and protect yourself."

That was still probably a little obtuse. Babylon decided to go for a more direct route: "Congratulations," he said. "You're a superhero."

Putting a paternal arm around her shoulder, Babylon led the page away from the fight scene - best not to stick around and be caught by the relevant authorities. "We get our power from our Wonders, which are sort of... wellsprings of power out in Space. Of Mercury means my Wonder's on Mercury. Yours, I'm assuming, is on Ganymede. And Ganymede has a senshi - a princess. I'm not sure how she's relating to her knights, but I can call her and you can sort that out?"

It seemed like a better idea than him trying to assume that Ganymede had anything set in stone. For all Babylon knew, this was the first ganymede knight ever in the history of the universe!

"Anyway," he sighed, trying to slow down on the exposition, "what's your name? If you think about it for a bit, it should come to you. It's probably on the tip of your tongue already."

She was just a kid, thought Babylon sympathetically. Younger even than when he'd first become a knight, and that was going on five-and-a-half years ago now. "Tikal," he repeated back to her, hoping to ground her and bring her down from her panic. "That's a lovely name. You're not going to go to jail, Tikal. We're the good guys. And I've never heard of a knight getting arrested."

Kidnapped, yes. Arrested, no. And he was just going to omit the kidnapping detail - life was hard enough for a newly-awakened page when you weren't worried that someone was about to snatch you, tie you up in an abandoned fairground, and torture you for kicks.

"I'm not sure Ganymede would want to be compared to your mom," he laughed, "given that she's like, twenty-one, but I'm sure she'd really like to be your friend? She's nice. Effusive. Generous. Stuff like that."

He raised his free hand to his mouth and, speaking into his signet ring, said, "Hey, uh, Ganymede? Babylon here. I'm with one of your pages. She's so brand-new that she's still got the wrapping paper on her. You want to come collect her? We're in the Diamond District."

Ganymede was on her way home from an uneventful patrol when she received the message from Babylon. Startled, she sent a short “Be right there” in return, and headed toward the diamond district in question.

A part of her was a little put out, not thinking she was obligated to deal with this, especially when she was exhausted and just wanted to go home, but the more responsible and pragmatic part of her said that she had a duty to this girl. After all, like Gevaudan, this girl bore her name.

Ganymede arrived on the scene in her Eternal garb, all red fabric and black ruffles and a miniature top-hat on her head. She glanced around as she passed a demolished jewelry store, before coming to a stop when she spied Babylon and the new page some distance away from it. She smiled at both the knight and the page.

“Looks like you've had an eventful evening. You called?” she said to Babylon. Every few seconds she would glance at the page. She felt rather underprepared for this. “You must be the new one. I'm Ganymede,” she introduced herself, unsure what exactly she was supposed to do in this situation. With Gevaudan things had been easier. She'd known him beforehand, even if he didn't quite remember her now.