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The Corner Game Shop, as it was known and rightfully so, was on the corner of two rather normal streets in Destiny City. It had visitors on most days, surely, but not today. Today, a major renovation effort was underway and the small store was, understandably, closed for business.

Amaryllis 'Aura' St. Grey woke early that morning, yet she didn’t know why. Luckily, nothing was being changed on the upper floor of the building for good reason. Upstairs was where the St. Grey family lived. It was an odd arrangement, to be sure, but when her father and mother decided to quit their previous jobs as a librarian and professor, respectively, to follow their dreams to own a gaming shop, it was more economically feasible to covert the upstairs into living arrangements and have the first floor and basement house the gaming shop. At least, that’s what her father said and her mother thought it unconventional and that made it quite perfect in her view.

Aurora 'Imagi' St. Grey woke early that morning, but that was because she always did. She could still keep her schedule even with the construction on the basement. Her parents wanted to create a gaming center with computer and arcade games and the like down there for customers. It was part of her father’s plan for expansion of the store into electronic gaming and her mother, eccentric as she was, had been looking for any excuse to create something other than storage out of the space. Imagi recalled her mother saying that it was a waste of space just to store old inventory down there and so the project started.

Aura was almost completely incapable of not being curious, although she preferred to experience things herself. Perhaps that is why she couldn’t help but enter the basement while her parents where away settling some dispute with the contractors. Her father was bad at negotiating so she knew it would take a while before they returned. The basement looked typical and it appeared not much had yet changed. All except the far corner of the room. It looked like someone had tried to dig into the floor for some reason. Reasons, as they were, did not tend to faze Aura very much. There was a strange stone in the rubble and it was unlike any she had seen. It was of a crystal-like substance and it had a small crack down its side. Aura, with blue-grey eyes shining, needing no reason not to, reached out for the precious stone.

Imagi was almost completely incapable of not being curious, although she preferred to read about things and do research herself first. Perhaps that is why she was reading a book, the subject arcane and rather boring, when she saw her identical twin sister leave her room and head downstairs. Imagi tended to follow her sister. It may have been the only instinct she possessed. Reasons, as they were, mattered very much to Imagi. Her adopted brother, Alphonse, was gone for the day as he tended to be now that he was out of high school and the twins were just starting, and her sister hadn't, at the moment, brought as animals home, so no one should be downstairs. So she couldn’t understand why Aura was looking intently in the corner of the basement. It wasn’t until she herself saw the very same stone with her expressionless blue-grey eyes that she tried, rather unsuccessfully, to stop her sister.

It was much too late. Aura had already touched the stone and she was about to find out how unwise that action was. Just as she grabbed the object, it began to glow a lavender hue that just kept getting brighter. As she shielded her eyes, she heard a cracking sound. She didn’t have time to think. She wouldn’t have done so anyway. She could feel the aura. Something was wrong and she couldn’t do anything about it.

It was much too late. Imagi could do nothing but watch and she knew that was unwise. She saw the stone crack. She need not shield her eyes. She didn’t have time to think. She would have preferred to. She could see the creature emerging. It was all very wrong and she knew her sister was in no position to do anything about it.

And that was when Imagi, for the first time, decided not to think about transforming. She just did so to protect her sister.

“Beta Leporis Power, Make-up!”

The exchange, as was wont to do so, happened in an understood language only the twins could have hoped to comprehend. It was mostly looks and gestures and an almost uncanny amount of mind-reading. There were, of course, words, but those were the lest consequential in their odd conversation. (But I will list them here if it will help the reader: “Well? Transform.” / “You know?” / “Now you do too.”)

And that was when Aura, for the first time, thought about transforming. She now knew who had been protecting her all this time.

“Alpha Leporis Power, Make-up!”

Alpha Leporis was now holding her sister’s - Beta Leporis’s - unconscious body. How had this happened? Why had she touched the stone? Where had the monster gone?

The girl knew that if her twin had been able to respond, Imagi would have known the answer. She always did. But, as Aura looked at her own uniform, her tiara cracked by the creature just as it had looked into her eyes with its own as it headed for the exit, she knew she couldn’t handle the beast alone and clicked the distress signal on her phone as she tried to wake her sister.

She needed help and, now, she had none.

α / ß

Sailor Altair

There's a story behind how Altair ended up with a duster over her senshi uniform and a long scarf obscuring her tiara and choker. Perhaps she'd look back on said story's details at some point in the future and laugh about it, hopefully. Yes, she could; optimism, she needed it. Death was not the way she wanted to go today.

Right now, she was a bundle of nerves as she began her attempt at calm steps toward getting into the entrance of the destination unnoticed. The distress signal was probably inside, so she could try to get in for investigating and so on, right?

Just in case though, she was already mentally practicing her cover-up explanation if this endeavor was impeded.

Squire Aptera

Her cousin had texted her an address with a concise note along with it: distress signal.

Aptera had written the address down on paper before heading toward the specified location and transforming on the way. What threat was there to face? She decided against checking the address she'd noted and kept in her dress side pocket right now; internally telling herself to trust and not be pulled by the draw to question her memory of the area and the assessment on her mind that she had yet to arrive at the intended place. Insecurity was something she endeavored to refrain from.

The squire quickly scanned the vicinity and at an identified opportunity of possible minimal discovery of her motions, she jumped up, off the tree she shielded her form in and landed in another tree across the street. And thus is how she went about making her way to the indicated destination in distress.

Sailor Ananke

Before Ananke knew it she was at the place where some bad vibes was going on. Though Ananke forgot all of that when she saw a familiar suited solider. With a few quick steps Ananke had hugged Altair from behind.

"Altair~ Its so great to see you again!"

Sailor Seiryuu

It had taken her a little longer to figure out what the strange buzzing sensation was. And them how to turn the distress signal off on her phone. She hadn't even known it could do that! How awesome was that?! Good to know for future ventures into the unknown.

Sailor Seiryuu made her way towards the address that had been displayed, noting the feeling of others converging in that direction. It didn't seem to be that icky feeling she got when confronting Chaos peeps. But there was something else beyond what she assumed were Order signatures.

A glimpse of another maneuvering towards the Game Shop like herself had Seiryuu following behind them until she saw the shop. Here she slowed and took stalk of her surroundings. Until she spotted someone slipping inside.

Curiosity ignited.

Seiryuu crept around to the front door and slid inside, where she found others quietly looking around as well. Cool!

Sailor Ananke

With a quick giggle she let go from the hug and took a look around. Her orange eyes blinking. "I just had a feeling something weird was going on over here..." Turning back to Altair she tilted her head.

"Do you have any idea what's going on?"

The aura of the creature was overwelming now. Its form had finally stopped glowing. It was now fully formed for the first time in a very, very long time. That was good as far as it was concerned. Now it could hunt.

The beast, as it emerged from the shop, was larger than it at first appeared. In fact, it practically destroyed the store front as it entered the evening light of a day slowly fading away. Two glowing eyes looked to the faint moon and it let out a cry that was more than unsettling.

For those who were on the street corner, or worse yet, right at the now broken doorway, the animal that stood before them was unlike any of this earth. You see, it wasn't just its aura that was not of this world.

Its eyes were lavender and they glowed almost like light through mist. Its ears where large and prominent and quite odd in shape as they stood up like a jackrabbit's. Its head was like that of a wolf except with too many teeth and much too large a mouth. Its front paws were like a bear's and its posture more than a little hunched. It had a lion-like mane aside from the fact that it started at the shoulder almost. Its back legs were thinner and more agile than its front had looked. And it had a tail like one would have thought was too long for its body ending in a tuft of hair like a horse's. All this with fur that looked like a combination of crystal and opal with the ability to bend light like a prism.

Unfortunately, the beast didn't look friendly. In fact, it pawed at the ground and its claws broke the stone pavement like it was nothing more than water in the wind or fire through ice or earth in a landslide. It was preparing to charge and, by the looks of it, it didn't care who it hit.

(( first die is Irkalla, second is for Myrrha ))

Page Irkalla
Irkalla watched the scene below. She had stuck to the roof and witnessed everything that was happening. The emergence of whatever that thing was didn't bode well for the integrity of the game shop. Taking into account that Irkalla was sensing order signatures from within the shop meant that someone on her side was possibly trapped inside. Taking a deep breath the page leaped down to the sidewalk and moved quickly into a shadowed area. She wasn't hopeful that she would not be noticed in the white dress that clung to her form but perhaps luck would be on her side. She wanted to get information and maybe she could find those trapped inside as being a font of information.


Sailor Myrrha

Myrrha stood in stunned silence as the creature destroyed the front entrance of the game shop. In the fading daylight the atrocity was not clearly defined until it stepped further away from the destruction it had wrought. The senshi of scents could not believe that such a creature could exist but she was intrigued by whatever it was. The aura it gave off was one of malice but yet at the same time Myrrha could not help but connect whatever this was to the paranormal. What a great thing this would be to show off on the forum boards. The teen shuffled towards the creature's location with her senshi phone held up before her aiming her camera and snapping a few pictures. Seeing the creature tear up the concrete with its claws had Myrrha backing away. She did not wish to tangle with this beast alone.

(( No damage to the monster. Irkalla would have 14 and Myrrha 8 after applying modifiers ))

A quick cover of her eyes when everything started to fall apart. She followed Altair to get a better look at their attacker. Welp that was quite a beast. Well the best thing she could do was try and attack the creature. "Well... I guess I'm going for it." Ananke ran and the kicked the creature as hard as she could in one of it's legs.

(14+1=15)