After a pleasant dinner with her cousin, Fai, Mei had been walking towards her car which had been parallel parked along the street a few block away. A man, thick with the scent of alcohol, stumbled ahead of her; ping ponging between the lines drawn by curb to his left and building storefronts to his right. Inanimate objects yelled with his drunken’ slur at as if they were an idle person standing in his way.
Idiot… Likely tossed out one of the local bars for picking a fight with someone he shouldn’t have.
There was a time in her life where she would have just ignored his behavior, kept her eyes on the ground, and and got the hell out of dodge. But this wasn’t Seattle; no… there were different monsters here, ones who sought to take more than just the money in his wallet.
The sun had long since set and with Fall transitioning into the ever dreadful winter months Mei could feel the cold chill seep through her olive green knitted sweater deep into her bones as she trailed the man a healthy distance away. She had hoped he lived close, in one of those apartment buildings stacked upon the small businesses at along the street level; but that soon died when he made a sharp right turn, pivoting on his heeling a bit too quickly, into a near empty parking lot and started fumbling around his coat pocket for keys.
His intent was clear, and something she simply could not allow him to go through with. Whatever his luck may or may not be, if she allowed him to get into his vehicle it’d be more than his life he’d be gambling with. And so, Mei reached into her pocket for her phone with the intent to call the police before his charges go from public intoxication to a DUI or worse, vehicular manslaughter or negligent homicide if he got into an accident and killed someone while on his way home.
However, before she was able to turn the device on she saw something. A mirage perhaps but she knew better as the incorporeal creature, seemingly made of mist or smoke, trailed after the man. A slinky creature, sticking to the shadows except when completely unavoidable. Grotesque, at least in her opinion, but seemed to be a creature that a certain group of senshi seemed to love.
Mei’s lips pursed into a thin line, annoyed by the turn of events she drew in a deep breath. While she should probably call her cousin to come help out with the Dark Mirror Senshi that was likely nearby she decided against it; he was likely already almost to the freeway by now and would take a while to turn around. Instead left her phone where it was and fished her henshin pen out of her side bag; this was something she’d handle on her own.
Quickly ducking into a side alleyway she found a dark area, just beneath a window ledge where neither light nor security cameras could see her, and powered up. Instantly she regretted the loss of layers as the air nipped at her upper arms and legs like a piranha devouring the body heat she had generated from walking. For a moment she hesitated, toying with the idea of leaving the man to the wraiths devices and going home as she intended, but at this point she was committed.
With the additional abilities granted to her she lept to the top of the building and sprinted across the roof and lept back down to the gravel lot effortlessly. Heels be damned, it took a few years but she had thankfully mastered maneuvering in them.
Sidouer offered no warning as she ran her gloved hands from elbow to fingertip and reached a hand out in the direction of the monster and shouted her attack,
“Static Shock!” The area illuminated in a bright light as an arch of static reached forth and mercilessly struck the creature; destroying it without a second thought.
The man stared at her, pants darkened from pissing himself. His eyes, wide as saucers, apparently incapable of blinking while his mouth open and shut like a fish out of water. “Give me those!” The senshi snatched his keys out of his trembling hands.
”Go back to the bar you crawled away from and have them call you a cab.” The annoyance on her face left no room for discussion although she wagered, had he’d not been startled so badly he’d probably pick a fight with her or taken a swing. But he saw what she could do; a magic slinger or a terrorist, whatever the case may be it didn’t matter what he thought so long as he left so she could deal with the senshi aura she felt lingering at the edge of her senses.
“O-o-ok, W-what ev-v-ver you say.” he stammered. One foot slid back, his eyes never leaving her own as he put distance between them and only when the grinding sound of gravel beneath the souls of his shoes turned to that of solid concrete did he turn tail and run not unlike someone who was fleeing death itself.
