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Adjusting the bag on her shoulder with one hand as she walked, she scrolled through her phone with her other. After a moment, the bag had slipped again and, again, she adjusted it on her shoulder. This time, a mild grumble under her breath accompanied it. The bag wasn't that old. It was made of canvas, on top of that, so it shouldn't be stretched out.

And yet.

But paying attention to where she was going took more precedence than trying to figure out why the straps on her bag weren't staying where they should, especially when she was trying to respond to a message.

To, 'Taal what do you want for dinner? Ahmaud's on his way', she responded:

'Go ahead and order whatever you want. I'm on my way home now, and I'll meet you guys there.'

She slipped her phone into her bag, stepped around someone who stopped suddenly in her path, pulled out a music sheet, and began scanning over it without breaking her stride. Ahmaud had written this one--the cadence was his, the fast drums and rumbling vocals.

She was so busy scanning over the music and humming along with the notes provided that she almost didn't see the monster at first. Taalia was peripherally aware of the person who'd stopped in her path now following along behind her, but she lived in a very large city. The 'following' was rarely intentional and she seldom took note of it unless they were getting too close or, conversely, staying exactly a certain distance away. This person had gotten close, then stepped around her as she turned onto a quieter street. Taalia turned her head and her shoulders toward them, mouth opening to ask the requisite, 'can I help you?'

Taalia didn't get further than 'can' before the sight before her made her stop short. On the outside, a more or less normal pedestrian. At least, as long as you didn't look at the face. The eyes were holes that began to leak a black bile, and a sharp, foul gaseous odour reached her from the saliva it had begun to drool. The stench of rotting meat and sewage washed over her and she stuffed the sheet back into her bag in her rush to cover her nose and mouth with one hand.

She began to back away, but the monster tilted its head to the side, an unnatural cant, and took a step toward her with a shuffling, clicking motion. Its legs didn't move correctly, like there were too many joints hidden behind the trousers. Taalia took another step back, and it took a faster step toward her.
As she came to a halt, she saw it crouch, hissing and low to the ground.

As Taalia turned to run, it leapt. She threw herself to the side and sent it crashing into a garbage barrel, strewing trash all over the street. She didn't take time to think about that, as it was already rolling to its feet and preparing for another attempt. Her hand found the bear spray she kept in her bag. Her thumb popped the safety clip off and she turned back toward the monster.

As it sprang, she squeezed, discharging the full can in its face.

"And if you get poisoned from it, ain't my--"

The ******** was Faust looking at? Or sniffing at--

His instinctual response was no--of course, he didn't smell anything--but Faust was off and Hydor, as was usual in their patrols, shrugged and followed that butt puff along. What had the Mauvian picked up on? An agent? Chaos senshi maybe? Then why was he missing-- Ah. Alright, he couldn't smell s**t, but he sure felt that. Youma. Somewhere nearby. In the vicinity. They could handle that, and it was best they did before it tried to find a ******** human snack.

Splitting up was oft the best solution in that case.

Hydor fished out his phone in case they had trouble getting each other's attention, before agreeing with an, "Aye," and eyeing another nearby building. Faust had the right idea. An overhead view might give them a better picture--

He ran at it, lept onto the roof, and started to scan for anything suspicious. Nothing immediate...

Over an alley, on to another-- okay, now he did smell something.

Destiny City did its best to keep itself clean. The literal trash strewn below was a good clue.

"Smell's stronger over here!" was his signal before he jumped down into the alleyway and followed the direction the s**t seemed to be pointing in.

Raccoons were gonna have a ******** field day later--

When Faust heard Hydor's call, he turned midair and used his bulky blubber to bounce off the side of the building nearest him. Ricocheting back to the rooftop from which he jumped, the puffy thing somehow landed on all four paws. He started to run, then paused and immediately licked his back left foot between the toes, as if something had gotten stuck there, or a thorn went into his paw. This sudden change lasted only a few seconds, however, and he was back to barreling toward Hydor's last known location.

Not that it'd take too long for Faust to find the dude. Even if his senshi gear was low-key compared to the rest, he stood the ******** out from normal people. Nobody else was getting caught running around in a suit that looked like it had been stolen off of a hobo. Helpfully, the sound of get ********> gave him a clue for where Hydor was lurking beneath his massive energy signature.

Sure enough, as Faust used his claws to brake at the end of another rooftop, the smell hit him before he even saw the youma and its civilian prey. "Aw hell," the cat cursed as he wrinkled his nose. "Ain't no way the Negaverse coulda come up with somethin' worse."

"Yo ********, I'mma mess you up!" Faust shouted before he leapt into a feline flying dragon kick, aimed straight for their shambling freak.

amasis

seiana_zi

There was the flying talking cat (which garnered an impressively angry-sounding reaction from the monster), and there was the sudden impenetrable whirling mist she found herself in. Either way, Taalia came to a skidding halt and stood watching them from where she could barely see over the rushing clouds. "I can at least help, you know!" Even if she had to pick up the cat and bludgeon the monster to death with it--

Well, maybe not the cat--

She'd been in a brawl or two. Had taught her niece and nephew most everything they knew. Granted, her nephew had then used that knowledge to get himself expelled and sent to Hillsworth, but that was neither here nor there. What was here was the monster in front of her, of them. Taalia didn't leave the clouds, but she did try to see if there was anything else she could use to attack the monster. Somehow, she didn't have confidence in a cat's karate moves.

No offense to the cat, of course. She was sure his karate moves were very nice--

The monster lunging toward her interrupted her train of thought, but the clouds seemed to stop it in its tracks. It snarled, once, then stretched up as if looking to reach over the cloud wall toward her. "Hey. Hey! Get ********>" She pressed backwards, but there was only so far she could go in the cloud wall.

Strickenized

she would not actually use u as a blunt weapon Faust dw

Seiana_ZI

Hydor and Faust worked well together, in Hydor's opinion, though he'd never say that directly to Faust. Didn't need to be said. Was honestly just a mutual understanding at this point, one he was happy to go about the reality of it existing without saying it definitely did.

Besides, since when had he ever been open about actually liking someone--

As Faust beamed the monster to get it away from the problem civilian and the newly encased in clouds civilian complained and then insulted the youma, he groaned to himself and decided to take point on this one-- "Look, whoever you are, you're not a ******** senshi. Not built to deal with this s**t. We got it."

He gestured to Faust.

"See, he's got head lasers."

And he?

Well, he had cyclones, but in the interest of not accidentally disrupting Faust he instead focused on hurling a trash can at the damn monster--

Aw hell, they had themselves a Talker.

Faust had dealt with Talkers before. They were the kind of pedestrian that pissed Thraen the hell off, to the point that he actually walked away from a couple of them. And they got to Faust, too, sometimes. What with all their ungratefulness, all their witty insults and weird observations, who wouldn't? Faust sure as s**t didn't leave 'em to die, but he didn't want —<********. <********>. "********!!" Faust exclaimed at the top of his tiny kitty lungs.

Practically roared it, the way he was heaved forward on his forelegs, chest protruding, muzzle to the sky. He'd yell it again and again and again, too, if it meant the cosmos would quit dicking him around. If Cosmos herself would cut her bullshit and go back to stirring the cauldron and minding her own damn business. Not getting all up in his s**t with these damn Talkers and their damn senshi starseeds, what the two-timing ******** was that all about —<********'," The cat swung himself around to face Hydor, youma temporarily forgotten. "She a damn senshi."

Then he turned to the stranger who Yelled. "You a damn senshi," he yelled back.

Then he rocketed toward her, leapt for no reason, and mid-flip had conjured a pen in his mouth that he then spat up at her, kitty-spit included. "Take this goddamn pen n' make yourself useful! Jus' yell out, Ancha Power, Make-up, enjoy the light show, and help us kick some a**!"

'You a damn senshi!'

'Jus' yell out, Ancha Power, Make-up, enjoy the light show, and help us kick some a**!'

She looked down at the pen in her hand, indeed covered in cat saliva--ew--and then back up to the cat and the man with him. The ferocity with which the cat had yelled '********' several times actually surprised her less than what had just happened. Did... did the cat just vomit a pen at her?

Well, he hadn't made the 'cat about to vomit' noise that she was oh-so-familiar with from her own cat, so she supposed not--

'Ancha Power, Make up'?

You know what?

Yeah.

Sure.

She held the pen and uttered--more a surprised projection of the voice than a yell, really--the words spoken to her by a talking cat helping a guy defend her against a gooey shadow monster. Light did envelop her for a moment, warm and bright, and for a moment she thought she could hear water. Then it dissolved away and left her standing in an outfit she decidedly had not left the studio in. No time to ponder on that, of course.

As the clouds around her began to dissipate, Ancha pushed forward.

"Red tide!" Sure. That felt right. Water flowed from her to come to rest in a pool with the monster at the center. At first, nothing aside from the water. But it became very still around the monster's feet and took on a red sheen. It was then that the monster--already distracted by the effects of Hydor's attack--let out a loud high-pitched whistle of anger and complaint, pawing at its eyes and swinging its head back and forth.

Searching.

Well, at least she seemed to be getting the how magic worked s**t pretty fast.

Seriously, this one had to be a senshi. Of course she did, after bitching at them endlessly that she could do something. Yeah, whatever. She was rising some red tide now, whatever the hell that meant. It seemed to be irritating the youma, in any case, and that was good enough for Hydor, he guessed.

Faust was just going to leave them to it now, of course. Something he had also expected the moment this newbie senshi seemed even a quarter competent. The good news was that they had already gotten to utilize Faust's cat laser, which had no doubt done a nice bulk of the damage to this disgusting joke of a trash heap. He didn't really want to touch whatever the hell that water was, though. The water wasn't supposed to be red.

So he wouldn't.

Rather than risking dealing with the water, he spun up one more cyclone and sent it straight for the youma, just in case. Maybe it would pick up some of this ... "red tide" water, whatever that meant.

"That s**t should do it," Hydor groused, "probably."

Faust was ready to take a nap, and Hydor was just ready to be done--

Wasn't fair that Ancha couldn't just ... not be a senshi.