The Story So Far
The night was chilly, but the rush of adventure was all the warmth she needed to keep herself moving, heels clicking as she bounced from one rooftop to the next. Cotton candy hair tied with black ribbons fluttered behind her as she darted - edges of silken black dancing with the wind as it tried to keep up with her. Arms were raised to her sides, the resistance pushing against her as she attempted to keep herself balanced with each jump across the empty spaces.
Exploring had to be one of her more favorite things, since being introduced to the Negaverse and the powers she now possessed. Duties and responsibilities still loomed over her head like a nagging parent, but the plain buildings and neighborhoods that had once been dull and boring to walk through were now springing to life, a new, fresh perspective given as she skipped across their coverings, their shingles and their concrete.
Tonight would be a good night to test the energy stealing that Ochre had taught her. Not only could she complete one of her many obligations to this new “team” of hers, but she could do so while enjoying the evening at the same time, the snow having finally taken a break from its attempt at blanketing the city with its whiteness.
She paused, her hair whipping out in front of her due to the sudden halt. Eyes closing, she concentrated as best she could, reaching out to feel, to try to sense any other powerful beings that might be lurking in the area. Aside from the two bratty children she’d come across, there hadn’t been much luck on the senshi front...but maybe tonight could be different?
As the bouncing corrupt had sped along the rooftops of buildings like a mad woman released from her prison for the first time, a far less enthusiastic lieutenant stepped out of the shadows near an old, seedy bar. The energy stealing she looked forward to with such anticipation had become a terrible chore for the green-haired man, who at that very moment held several dimly glowing balls aloft to examine.
“One, two, three..”
Domeykite mumbled the numbers to himself as he pushed the orbs around with the tip of his opposite finger, as if they might suddenly multiply amongst themselves and end the requirement he had yet to fill that night. It was a time sink that he loathed. With an aggravated sigh, he shoved the orbs back from whence they came and stepped delicately over the slumbering form of the grizzled, old biker he had left unconscious in the grimy alley. It wouldn’t be the first time Ol’ Georgie had been found passed out face down on the concrete.
However it was only a few blocks down the street before he became aware of the buzzing energy of his own ilk, similar but not the same, moving wildly through the night. Was it someone that Labyrinthite had sent to keep an eye on him? Annoyed at the thought of being involuntarily supervised and too lazy to try and beat them at their spy game, he turned a full circle on the pavement and opened his mouth to yell into the night around him.
“I know you’re there, whoever you are. Just come out already..”
Both of his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his uniform pants as he waited with all his irritation evident on his face.
Hm, now what was this?
Eyes opened as the man’s voice yelled, effectively interrupting her attempt at playing with her new, almost Force-like vibe hunting skills. She was still new to the magical girl game, but she definitely didn’t feel any senshi nearby. There was, however, a similar vibe coming from the East - had another Negaverse member found her? Already?
She really needed to step up her game, if folks kept springing up on her like that.
Walking over towards the edge of the building, a quick glance down the street and the hollering individual was spotted. Or, at least, who she assumed was the guy yelling - grumpy looking young man with both a fairly fashionable looking fur neckline and a long scowl across his face.
Hopping across to the next building, she took a skip towards the edge, then a graceful hop down onto the pavement square near the offended looking Negaverse agent. She had a feeling she wasn’t going to be tired of her new height-defying leaps anytime soon.
A hand moved back, idly brushing her hair out of her face. “I’m no expert in this senshi-hunting game, but I’m pretty sure that revealing we’re hanging around an area isn’t doing either of us any favors.”
Her tease was accompanied by a genuine smile - he may not be the senshi she was hoping to find, but meeting another “coworker” of sorts definitely perked up the otherwise boring evening.
Domeykite remembered what it was like to marvel in an other-worldly strength, to leap in bounds greater than any human legs ever could. There had been a thrill in pushing himself, at first, before he realized what cost was attached to the power he had enjoyed. Then there had come an even greater disappointment when he realized that the cost was attached to a very strict no refund policy.
“The senshi hunting game is easier than it looks.” Despite her genuine smile, his face remained irritable, half-drawn in a scowl. He looked like he would rather be anywhere, doing anything else. Obviously, the charm of his superhuman abilities had worn off long before this new girl had ever been initiated. He should have been relieved that it was just some newbie enjoying the first weeks of her new life, but there was always something bittersweet in watching one more fool fall into the trap. “If you stand here and scream long enough, some self-righteous twit will always show up to challenge you.”
He ended the statement with a shrug of indifference. Four years in the negaverse had a way of dulling all the special thrills he had enjoyed before he’d woken up and realized that he wasn’t just playing a real life version of Champions Online. There was no way to tell her that, though - he knew nothing would change the decision she’d made, even if she wanted it to. He suspected if that look on her face was so genuinely pleased, she probably hadn’t realized her mistake yet.
“Besides, hunting down those puffy-skirted magical girls isn’t really the most important part of our job description.” One of the hands shoved into his pocket retracted, showing her one of the small, pearlesque orbs he had been examining earlier. Then, he paused, and watched her with a sudden curiosity. “Can you guys even collect these?”
In all his time in the Negaverse he had never bothered to get close to one of the corrupts. They were as foreign to him as their White Moon counterparts.
Her eyes lit up excitedly, nearly as bright as the orb he displayed in his palm. Hands moved up to do one, single clap and the grin across her face grew even wider - if that was even possible.
“Energy orbs! Ochre taught me about those!”
Dia failed to have the slightest clue as to whether this stranger was aware of Ochre’s existence or not - she had met a whopping three members of this exclusive club of theirs (four, if you counted kitties, but did they really count the kitties?) and while the trio she’d met had a drastically varying spectrum of personalities, the corrupted senshi was under the impression that there were dozens, if not more, agents spread across the country. Did the Destiny City ones know each other? Were there club meetings of sorts? Grendel had mentioned being summoned by the General Kings and Queens, but she’d yet to be called to anything…
Oh well.
It was true, the senshi was still enjoying herself far too much than the weathered Lieutenant clearly was. Her history was fresh, his experienced. His scowl did not diminish her excitement, however, the clasped hands moving down to absentmindedly tug on the bottom of her pink-trimmed skirt.
“If they’re so easy to hunt - the senshi - do you want to find one with me?”
What better way to try this fight game than to have someone else there to assist her while she assisted him? Surely he was more skilled and had better talents than her singular ability to throw sticky gumdrops at people. Plus, brownie points for the Bigwigs. Dia could certainly use some brownie points, what with her slacking off over the course of her first two weeks on the “job”.
“I’m Dia, by the way.” One hand moved away from her skirt and extended itself towards the young man. “Sailor Dia. One of the good senshi.”
Domeykite’s fingers curled up around the little ball instinctively as she clapped and chirped in glee, simply at the sight of something he found to, personally, be the most tedious of all his responsibilities. For someone so disillusioned, the sight of her utter joy was simply too much. The corners of his lips tugged in an almost disbelieving scowl and his eyes narrowed, as if he might block out her rays of happiness like sunlight.
But, then -
“Wait, Ochre?” The hand still holding the orb lowered, finally, and shoved back into his pocket. “So they finally let him out of his cage?”
He was reminded suddenly that he hadn’t seen him since the first time he had been flagged for inactivity and he wondered if he didn’t owe him a visit so they could meet properly. The thought at least pulled the scowling look off of his face before he refocused on her - and her offer. His hand shifted in his pocket before it withdrew, idly reaching up to scratch at the back of his neck as his eyes quickly shifted away. The scowl might not have resurfaced, but there was a frown as he stared up at a streaking airplane overhead.
Why the hell did people always want him to do something?
His eyes shifted sideways when she finally offered her name and he sighed, defeated. Domey really needed to make an effort if he wanted his pursestrings loosened a little. The hand at his neck dropped, with a notable lack of energy, and he finally turned to look at her straight on again.
“Domeykite.”
His hand reached out to take hers and he found himself staring down at her face and eyes, he realized, that reminded him of cherry blow pops. The hand around hers released, casually, but immediately shoved back into the pocket of his pants.
“What do you know about auras?”
“Wait, his...cage?”
The smile faltered for a brief second, the senshi staring at the Lieutenant curiously. Surely...no, he couldn’t really mean an actual cage, could he? No, it was probably just a very strange way of phrasing it, whatever he meant. Shaking her head, she laughed as though she were let in on a joke - or at least, what she hoped was considered a joke. As he released her hand, hers moved up to motion around them both.
“I do know that we both give off one.” Dia preened as she explained herself. If this grumpypuss wanted to test her, she was ready for the exam, “Everyone with any sort of power gives one off, even the kitties. Well, sort of.”
Glancing down the road, she caught the gaze of a curious pedestrian attempting to hurry home with his grocery bags. She gave him a wink, which made him quickly avert his staring and increase the speed of his hurrying. It felt good - being the one that people feared in the darkness, as opposed to being frightened of what lurked among the shadows. Even if she was now regarded as one of the meddling gang members that roamed the city, she had the power and control to do as she pleased.
Turning back towards her new companion, she gave another idle hairflip of the pink locks covering her ears. “I’ve only met a few senshi - for the other side - and all of them have felt rather….”
What was the word she was looking for?
“....unpleasant.” Smiling, she nodded her head, proud of her word choice. Granted, she also omitted the fact that the two senshi she’d stumbled upon by her lonesome had been chibi senshi, but that was a little tidbit she’d leave out for now. Pausing, her eyebrows furrowed. “Why? Are you sensing something right now?”
Shoot - had one gotten by and she’d been too busy prattling to notice?
Deciding it best not to mention things about Ochre that he might not like to advertise openly, he let the question of the cage drift off. He didn’t know if the senshi’s attitude had changed since his incarceration - the Negaverse did have a way of squashing out the rebels - and if it had, he might resent being advertised as disloyal. If it hadn’t, well, Domeykite knew all too well what drawing attention to the unwilling meant for them..
“You get better at sorting it out the more familiar you get with it - and, I’m told, when you get stronger. Some of us aren’t motivated enough for promotions, though.” It was hard to tell if the lanky lieutenant was making a joke or not as there wasn’t much to suggest he found his current situation humorous. If it was humor, it was dark, and just the very tip of his issue iceburg.
“I’m not that.. strong, to be honest but I try to constantly pay attention to the auras. There’s one lingering close by.” He paused and turned his head in the direction that he could best guess the order signature was originating from and considered it. The dark, unruly hair on his head bobbed as he nodded his head to indicate the origin. “Do you feel it? They’re near the old theater, maybe, or the downtown shoppes.”
The sour demeanor had been abandoned in favor of helping a newbie learn something that might stop her from being demolished by a surprise Prince or Princess meet and greet.
“Can you tell if they are weak or not?”
She frowned, pursing her lips as she focused on the aura he had pointed out. Sure enough, she’d been too distracted to notice the faint unsavory feeling of one of the White Moon members off in the distance. It set off a weak pulse, but she genuinely could not tell if the weakness was due to the low rank of the person emitting or the length of space between the two parties. Or maybe both? Who knew.
“They don’t feel very strong…” She started slowly, cautiously watching his expression as she responded in attempts to not look entirely foolish in front of an experienced veteran. “But that could just be the distance?”
Dia had also caught herself before revealing her surprise at the mention of promotions - that would have to be something she would ask Grendel or Lace about later. Was it possible for them to climb the ladder of rank, over time? Could she be as powerful and intimidating as the General Queen that had inducted her?
The possibilities were exciting, happiness at the thought of a General Queen Dia generating enough energy to send her darting forward, taking hold of the Lieutenant’s wrist as she dashed off. “C’mon - let’s find out!”
She lacked the teleporting skill that the higher ranked officials possessed, so it would be a hunt on foot - but thank goodness she had someone to help her out, this time!
Domeykite nodded slowly as he watched the look of concentration on her face. She was at least attempting to work it out before she went dashing off blindly - that was a good sign for the longevity of the girl. He couldn’t count the number of people he had met in their line of work that he hadn’t seen - some of them disappeared, others tried to sneak off of the grid. In his experience, the only way out of the contract was.. Death.
And here she was looking so pleased with herself about it.
“You’re right, it’s probably a rank two at be - “
The typical resting d**k-face expression broke into surprise with with widened eyes as she simply grabbed his wrist and drug him forward, making him stumble over his own footing for the first few steps. Unfortunately, with the grip she had on him it was either meet her pace and go with the flow or meet the ground. With his face. Even a fledgling corrupt was enough to drag around his lanky form if she felt strongly enough about it.
In the span of a few breaths he was at her side, shifting his wrist in her grip so that she clamped her fingers around his hand instead of the bony knob on the outside of his arm. Though he didn’t look precisely happy as he let her pull him into the dash, there was less resistance than there would have been if she’d been Labyrinthite barking orders.
In minutes the pair of them were closing in on the unfortunate member of the Senshi Kingdom, and he tugged at her hand to get her to slow down. Even if there were two of them cornering a weak enemy, he knew enough about Senshi magic to know they could compensate for their lack of numbers with skills that blew any lieutenant out of the water. If he was going to teach her to follow energy signatures, then he had better damn well teach her to be cautious too.
“Slow down before you get too close,” the hand around hers tightened and he dug in his heels. The two bright, lime eyes darted around them until he saw a fire escape leading up the back of a building. As he jerked his head in that direction, the wild tuft of deep green hair shifted in the breeze, bringing a bit of the pushed-back bangs into his face again. Feigning annoyance, he pulled his hand free of hers and tried to brush it back out of his face again.
“You head up there and see if you can spot them and I’ll close in from down here.” He brushed past her and turned halfway as he walked, for one last reminder. “And don’t let me get ambushed, cupcake.”
She skidded to a halt as he pulled her back, stopping in her tracks as he instructed her to slow down. Pink curls flew forward and jerked back with her sudden stop, her eyes momentarily going wide as she glanced around at their surroundings.
His head motioned, her gaze followed, falling upon the laddered stairway in question. Climb, up there? In heels?
Dia would have argued, or at least made a point that her footwear was meant for more ground patrolling than stair stepping, but the Lieutenant was already passing her, leaving her with one final instruction. Nodding her head, she decided it was best to suck it up - this guy clearly knew what he was doing and who was she, a newbie, to argue with a plan he’d probably executed plenty of times before?
The fire escape in question had a pull down ladder, which looked rather tricky to try to grab for. The bottom stair dangled feet up in the air from where she stood and a casual jump towards the rung proved fruitless. Frowning, she stooped down, lowering herself in hopes to provide a better spring to her step. Taking in a deep breath, she jumped upwards, sailing up and closing in the space between her and the ladder that taunted her. Fingers curled around the metal bar and the fire escape’s end came sliding down with her as black stilettos returned to the ground.
Yes!
There was no time to celebrate - Domeykite was already scouting the ground level for the senshi, whose aura was growing stronger by the minute. So up the stairs she crawled, hands gripping the metal sides as she focused on making sure the heels of her shoes didn’t wedge themselves into the tiny grates of the fire escape.
It ended up taking several minutes for her to scale her way to the top, but the climb proved worth it because there - there - lingering on the top of the roof, stood a petite looking blonde who was no doubt the source of the troublesome aura. She stood there, hands on her hips, glancing around the rooftop in search of something - probably the Negaverse aura, in fact. Her uniform looked disgustingly adorable, whites and baby blues to go along with the wide blue eyes that continued to hunt for her own prey.
“I CAN FEEL YOU,” the girl practically hollered out, cupping her hands around her mouth. “YOU CAN’T HIDE FROM ME.”
Dia instinctively crouched down, ducking far enough to keep her head from peeking up along the side of the rooftop. She had half a mind to whisper for the Lieutenant - would the senshi hear her? Would Domeykite? What in the world should she do??
It was too much to ask for, it seemed, that things simply went smoothly.
As Domeykite rounded the front of the building and began a slow, easy gait through the shadows of the street awnings, someone overhead began to scream. It wasn’t in fear, but in challenge, and part of him regretted that he had made Dia scout alone. Unintentionally, she was much closer to the enemy than he was.
s**t.
He might have been a slacker but he was well versed enough in the ways of this war that he knew Dia was in the most danger alone. No matter what her magic was, he knew he couldn’t get to the rooftops quickly enough to stop an attack. The backlash for getting someone killed was probably a lot worse than Xenotime interrupting his favorite video game.
s**t, again.
That was when he stepped out of the safety of the shadows and into the light of the street lamps instead, making sure he was visible from the surrounding rooftops. Whoever the senshi was retained the safety of the darkness the night provided so far overhead, out of the yellow glow of the old bulbs. Never-the-less, he cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled out in return.
“Down here, then. I’m not hiding.”
His hands fell away as he scanned the skyline with his bright eyes, trying to focus on anything that seemed to move or shift. Which of the dark blots against the sky was the senshi? Which was Dia? A nauseated feeling rolled over his stomach, born entirely of his own uncertainty, but he didn’t call his weapon just yet. He needed whoever that was to believe he wasn’t a threat - until he could get his hands around their neck and, more importantly, keep them away from the corrupt he had unintentionally sent into a trap.
Why did these damn senshi always do the least expected?
Hang on, Cupcake.
Her head whipped around in surprise as she heard him holler back, the voice’s direction coming from the ground behind her. She heard the running next, the surprisingly heavy thuds as each of the girl’s boots pounded against the concrete rooftop. Her head automatically sank further, her chin practically pressing itself against her bent knees as she did her best to curl into a ball and hide away from the world, should the senshi decide to peer over the edge.
Thankfully, however, the sailor scout in question had more of a reckless nature than a collective, scheming one and instead of looking before she leaped, looked while she leaped. A whirlwind of blues and whites sailed by Dia and plummeted down, down, down until those same heavy bootsteps slammed into the sidewalk pavement below.
Right near...Domeykite???
Oh, no!
Her hand clasped itself over her mouth as she crawled to the other side of the firewall landing to peer down. He wasn’t even making an aggressive pose as the girl scowled at him - what was he doing? Surely he had a plan, right?
It took her several moments to collect her own thoughts, her next gesture being an outstretched hand. A small red gumdrop fell into her palm as she silently conjured her own, fairly useless weapon and she began to nervously roll it between two fingers. The distance between herself and the other girl was too far for her to make a proper throw, but she wanted to be ready, just in case.
Knees shifted upwards, turning her ball-shape form into a low crouch. She might not be any more than a distraction, but she could at least be that for the Lieutenant.
Well, at least the senshi was as foolish as he had hoped, though now it left him with the all-too-real fact that he was standing toe to toe with her. The only comfort he took from the knowledge was the fact that Senshi usually weren’t as well-versed in combat at stage one and if he could blow her magic, whatever it was, then he might have enough of a buffer to take her out.
His bright eyes narrowed on her fuku, searching it uselessly for any sign of what he might need to expect.
“Good of you to join me now that you’ve woken up the entire ******** neighborhood.”
A soft, belittling laugh passed his lips and he raised both arms up, leaning his head back against their brace. It was meant to make him look unguarded, belly open and his arms preoccupied. Would the senshi just attack, or was she a talker? That was another unknown variable and, again, he found himself cursing the unpredictability of their battle grounds. This all would have been so much easier if they had simply been able to get a good view of her first.
The only thing he had managed to accomplish thus far was getting the senshi closer to him and farther from the fledgeling corrupt - but now he had to focus very hard not to look up at the skyline for her, to make sure she had gotten safely out of sight. Any indication that she was there and this situation would get a lot more ugly. Could Senshi call for back-up like they could? He was worried when he couldn’t remember the answer.
“I’m going to have to end this little rendezvous before the cops show up, or any of your little friends.” His playful, s**t-eating smile turned into a nasty leer as both arms dropped. The weapon he summoned into his fingertips was as much of a joke as any lieutenant’s weapon ever was - but it was all he had. Well, it and months worth of intense, relentless training at the hands of an empowered maniac.
