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Jarias old car was popped into the garage for a tune up, so she was forced to walk home from the club she had been working. Since it had yet to snow, She felt confident in her late night walks. Plus if she was attacked, she could just power up to Verona right?

She texted Van though, since her walk would lead her past her girls place and asked the woman to meet her outside. Perhaps she could get a little kisses, a little cop of feel-

"Hey!" Jarias smiled as she noticed a woman further ahead of her, one with a frame that matched hers and reminded her of someone...

"Aren't you Ariel from the train station?" What luck!

Vanessa wasn't at home when she received Jarias's text message. She was out-- as Vulcan this time, and not the Wonder Woman that Jarias had spirited away from the bar. There was a cut on her lip and a little stream of blood on her chin from an encounter with a youma that had too many sharp bits. It had taken place in an alley, and the backs of her thighs were raw where they'd scraped against brick wall. The shadows of a bruise -the colour of dark blood- was starting on her left cheek, and her heart throbbed with the echoes of her success.

And then there was another throb, for an entirely different reason, over the little message that blinked across her phone. It was an invitation, she knew. To trade in her senshi skirt for a pair of hands instead. Jarias did not know yet what sort of things Vanessa got up to when they were not together. She bit her lip. Winced just slightly over the injury there.

Ow.

It was a question probably as old as the oldest question. Might possibly have BEEN the oldest question.

To booty call, or not to booty call?



She wiped the blood from her chin with the back of her hand, and then started on her way home.

---

"Yeah, really." Cinnabar chuckled, her hands sliding deep into the back pockets of her jeans as she considered the woman in front of her.

By rights, this one should be dead, her starseed collected to join the rest. It was an over sight that she had escaped.

"I don't want to take you aware from anything." She said with a bit of a half smile, her head tilting playfully to the side. "But I certainly wouldn't say no to walking with a pretty girl."

Her grin widened as she half turned, giving Jarias a moment to decide what she wanted to do before she set their path for the building down from them and the dark alley beside it. "There's a cut through over here that'll save some time. It comes out at a little park and my apartment is on the other side. Its a pretty nice night to be out, I think. Shame the city lights make it hard to see the stars."

The civilian she had been following was gone when she glanced around for them, but there was no helping that. She'd have to pick up their trail again later, but maybe she could make it so the night wasn't a complete loss.

"It's okay darling! Women like us gotta stick together!" She automatically took the path that Ariel pointed out and then looked back, "I could never refuse a friend! I mean well, we could be friends and stuff."

She looked around and then rolled her head. "It's not been to bad during the nights though, I heard a lot of people went missing but I think we're okay."

Another text came through.

"ah lucky for us, my girl isn't home so I got plenty of time to take you home too!" She pocketed the phone.

The beat of her heart was a war drum.

Vulcan was ready for battle when she happened upon Cinnabar, alighting on the top of a three story apartment building, peering over the ledge at the ground below. Her breath came heavy and hard from the effort of the hunt. It was not fatigue.

It was exhilaration.

And then, when she understood what was happening on the sidewalk- when she recognized the flow of long rainbow hair- it was terror.

And rage.

Vulcan saw Cinnabar pull back with Jarias's starseed pinched between her claws, but she did not watch her. Everything that followed happened in a succession of half-seconds. Vulcan was the bullet of the gun that Cinnabar had pulled on herself by touching Jarias. The Volcano launched herself off the side of the building without a sound or hesitation. She was not concerned about landing, because Cinnabar was going to break her fall. And then Vulcan was going to break her face. And her legs. And the fingers that molested Jarias's life gem.

True prizes were never easily won and the flare of an incoming Order signature was not unexpected. All her career, pulling a starseed seemed to spark an attack. This time would be no different.

The bright beacon in her senses fell from the sky and the General had only a fraction of a moment to respond. She threw herself to the side in a rattle of chains and a body hitting the ground and used her momentum to roll across her shoulder rather than come down flat. It allowed her to tuck her legs under and the motion brought her up again, facing her attacker with the starseed still caged in her hand.

"Hello, Gingersnap." She purred as her red-black eyes swept over the senshi girl who'd landed where she had been standing. The bright, curly, red hair was the most obvious feature on this woman, but there was a lot of lovely olive skin to go with it, left exposed by the scraps of cloth she no doubt called her uniform. And bare feet... Cin had a fleeting thought at how impractical that had to be, and how often painful. Such a lovely, but ridiculous, costume.

"Have you come to play with me? I warn you, I play rough." A low, rippling growl fell from her throat, dripping between her teeth as she bared them.

The expression on the girl's face was so hard it sent a delightful shiver of sensation down Cinnabar's spine. Her pupils shrunk to cat-like slits as she grinned back, head tilting to the side like a curious animal. A finger pointed and the general pursed her lips in question.

"What, this little thing?" She purred, her voice rumbling around the sound as she tossed the seed up and caught it again in a playful motion. The offer gave her pause though as she considered it for a breath of a moment.

A senshi starseed is worth more than a mundane civilian. To bring in one of those would be far more worthwhile... But the thoughtful look melted back into a smile as Cin wagged a finger at the red head.

"Why give back what I've already won for something, when I can simply take it?" She laughed, rocking back to get her feet under her and push to stand. Her stance stayed steady and defensive through the move, balanced on the balls of her feet. Confidant she might be, but not stupid. An eternal senshi was a match for a General in power, it would be idiotic to discount it.

"Still... if you are willing to be cooperative... maybe I can be merciful." She mused as she rolled the starseed through her fingers. Holding out, she waved the girl closer with an outstretched finger. "Come here, then. Let me take it, and I will put hers back... Be a good girl for me, Pretty."

There was very little chance the senshi would actually go through with it, but Cin was confident enough in her position to let the game play out a little. Would she really? Or would she balk? Would she try to double cross? The possibilities were fun to consider and Cinnabar's red lips curved in a cruel little smile.

Cinnabar laughed, genuinely amused, and she rolled the starseed playfully through her fingers.

"Usually I am. Deceit is for those who aren't strong enough to get what they want through straightforward means, and I am not weak." She chuckled, tilting her head to the side with a playful air.

She considered the demand with an amused light in her eyes, weighing the chance this girl would keep her word over her own ability to force anything from her. Her first instinct was; yes, she could take her, and easily, but experience cautioned her against overestimating her own abilities. This girl was not some fresh-faced basic... she had earned her wings. She certainly wouldn't be easy to take down, and not without taking her own damage from it. Was that worth one starseed, when she could easily find another?

"That point is debatable, Gingersnap, but very well. We won't test it today." She extended her hand to the side, starseed on her palm, and walked towards the fallen body of the woman. She kept a careful distance from her senshi protector, though her eyes never left her. When the starseed hovered over the civilian, she extended her other hand outwards and beckoned with curled fingers.

"Very well. Come here, and I will release her starseed." The general purred, her tail giving an excited lash behind her. The new signature was noted, and dismissed, though a portion of her mind tracked it should it get too close. This might need to done quickly, rather than risk adding another player to the game. "You have my word."