Welcome to Gaia! ::

The return from Almadel’s museum left Jet bristling with anxiety. Not because he was still clueless on their next course of action, but because they might have a lead now.

Thoughts and theories and his own experiences were whirling in his mind. He thought there were only storms on Earth. If the database had been updated with other information, the storms themselves might have been jamming the data from coming through.

But now that he knew the storms were recurring on other worlds—saw it with his own eyes—they might be able to do something.

He met Aquamarine in the hall shortly after teleporting back. He was too agitated to do more than nod with appreciation for Aquamarine’s forethought to let the Queen know they would need to speak with her upon his return.

They paused at the door to her office, knocked to let her know they’d arrived, and waited for permission to step inside before doing so and shutting the door behind them.

“Your Majesty, the storms seem to be a way for the creature to travel, and they’re recurring in the same places,” he said, not wanting to waste her time, or Earth’s. “We could target the storms.”

There were faint indications that Laurelite had not slept recently, and though she had been bestowed great power, she was still human beneath it all. At least, a part of her.

Her small smile was unwavering, and though her eyes were bright and alert, faint shadows hung under her eyes.

“Gentleman,” she greeted. There were several blueprints and three open tablets on her desk. Even as she listened, she was still multitasking between them all. “I’ve grown very glad to see you these last few days. I’ve been hoping for some good news. You think it would be productive to target a storm? Tell me what you’ve learned.”

If Aquamarine was as fatigued as Jet and the Queen appeared, he showed it less. He certainly wasn’t bright eyed and bushy tailed, but the shadows beneath his eyes were fainter—the product of genetics, perhaps, or the result of a slightly less active workload. Jet didn’t have to go out into the field, but he liked control when he could have it and Aquamarine liked to give it to him, even if he gave Jet a hard time about it in the hours between outings. As much as Aquamarine wished otherwise, Jet was not ordinarily good at delegating. So Jet went out into the city, searching for Senshi and Knights and strange alien merchants, and Aquamarine stayed behind to tend to the work that would have piled up in Jet’s absence.

Though he had already been privy to Jet’s conversation with Almadel, Aquamarine gave Jet’s report to the Queen as much attention as he would have if he were hearing it fresh.

“So we what? Shoot it out of the sky like he said? Make sure it’s somewhere not Earth? Then what?” A touch of skepticism crept into Aquamarine’s expression. He could sense the anticipatory energy rolling off Jet but was too wary to share the thrill just yet. “Between ourselves, the Velencians, and the Dark Mirror, gathering the necessary energy shouldn’t pose too much of a problem, but would that be enough to kill it? I doubt it. Nothing’s ever that easy, which I assume means we’d have to get to it to finish the job.”

Jet hated that he didn’t have answers for the Queen. He hated that despite those he’d already tried getting information from, there just wasn’t enough, or perhaps they just hadn’t known at the time. Maybe if he talked to them again, with this new information they had, there would be more for them to work with.

He agreed with Aquamarine’s skepticism of course. And the Queen’s in turn. He stood up a little straighter in hopes it would boost his own confidence in the situation.

“Kerberos said the White Moon was planning a meeting on the full moon when I spoke with him last,” he said, but the Queen knew this already. It was in his report to her when he’d returned from his meeting with the traitor. He’d even entered it into the database for all to be aware of.

“Perhaps they have more information now that this meeting supposedly took place. I’ll get in touch with those I can to find out if they have an actual plan, or if they expect us to do everything. If they did, they should give us the spikes they have to form the trap.”

Not that they knew how to use them. And not that they had enough, if they based it off the information they knew about the spikes.

“I don’t know if we’d be able to annihilate it in a single strike, but given the situation and lack of reliable information and resources, I believe attempting to take it out in a single strike would be ideal. I don’t trust the White Moon to follow through with anything. While they can travel to space, it seems as though they can only travel to their individual worlds, and I haven’t yet learned how many they can bring with them. I don’t know which of them would be willing to use their World to fight it.”

There was no point in censoring himself when Laurelite had already anticipated what he’d say. She looked at Aquamarine with an amused expression but reprimand or judgment were far from her mind.

“My sentiments as well,” she agreed with him. “The White Moon is, in many ways, like a feral dog. Feed it scraps and treat it well and it may still bite you as soon as opportunity arises. Collaborating with the White Moon does not mean exposing our underbelly. Let us avoid giving them any advantages over us. Expect that they are as preoccupied with striking at us as they are with ‘saving their world’.”

She scoffed slightly, a dainty sound all things considered. “We will not tell them of our capabilities. They don’t need to know. If anyone will save Earth, it will be us. They can play a support role, if they can manage even that much. But I will not defer to them for guidance or leadership. I don’t trust them, and they can’t even trust each other. I appreciate the efforts to gather more information, that will be useful. Please keep me updated when you’ve spoken to them again.”

Once more, Laurelite seemed to be considering things from different angles, but her progress was always forward and nothing seemed to delay her for long. “I’ll look into what options we have for a ‘single strike’. I agree, one strike before it can develop any defenses or learn to predict the damage we can do. But it means we need to make sure that shot counts. There is no room for error in this. I’ll gather information, myself. Thank you for this update. It’s been very helpful. I’m feeling rather optimistic again.”