Predatory Puddles (6) : Summer rains aren’t uncommon, so finding puddles dotting your path isn’t in itself particularly surprising or abnormal. However, as you walk past them, you feel the sensation of being watched, like eyes are on you. If you look into the puddles, you don’t see your reflection--nor the reflection of anything familiar to you. Instead, you see strange, decayed buildings, and odd, rotting plants. Something is watching you through the puddles, but before you can investigate, between one blink and the next, it’s all gone. When you look back, the puddles are oddly non-reflective, and then in the next blink, they’re all gone. The feeling of being watched doesn’t fade, though.
Morgan stared down at the collection of puddles. Water dribbled in tiny rivets and streams between pavement cracks, wearing down the tar and gravel mixture bit by bit. Carving canyons for ants and other insects to traverse. Connected by these rivers were pools--some in potholes, some in worn dips in the gutter, some in jagged pits caused by chunks of pavement getting ripped out.
Sometimes due to wear and tear. Sometimes due to magic and magical weapons. Sometimes due to slamming a metal pipe down through a youma's neck a bit too hard.
The youma itself had since faded away into dust that, in turn, blew away in a convenient breeze. One that heralded in a quick rainstorm, to boot. The Super Senshi had grumbled, tucking her braided hair into her hood that she yanked up over her head. Taking refuge under the overhang of an upper floor, she'd waited till the heavy cloud lost its load before coming back out. Sunshine turned the droplets and miniature rivers into jewels, reflecting red and oranges as the sunset snaked through gaps between buildings.
"Huh. That's new."
She'd been watching how the water moved and collected. It had raced through its allowed spaces, overflowed and flooded, taking debris along with it to form dams or clog drains. Now, everything was quiet beyond a few trickling tiny streams.
Her skin had begun prickling about the same time the storm had blown over.
No other energy signatures pinged her. No pedestrians were around to cast careful glances or strictly avert their gaze from the oddly clothed young woman. But she could definitely pin-point the sensation of being watched.
Now, as she stared at the puddles, she took notice of how the blue, cloud dappled sky wasn't reflected. Like cracks in the doors she'd seen in those long, long halls, misshapen forms peered back from small glimpses out of the puddles. Dilapidated buildings with architecture she couldn't place. Plants that looked dry, drooping, rotting... dead. Sometimes, she'd blink and suddenly the sight would vanish. Then return. Vanish. Return.
She remained where she was, not liking the sense of being watched, but too curious to risk ruining whatever was going on. Her head tilted, eyes focused on the odd scenery and whatever was beyond them.
"Now what are you?"
