“Er… come with me if you like?” Aurora blinked, coming out of her daze. Sirirus was, of course, no help. What a butthead, she thought to herself. The question that Brenna had asked just registered. Brenna had already gotten up and had gone over to the girl.

"Hey wait for me!" She quickly got up and followed after Brenna. She caught the other girl's name and something about Rigel. Ah! Sailor Rigel. She was right; the new girl was part of them.

"Oh hi! I'm Aurora! I'm researching Alnitak," she said with a grin. Brenna sure was clever with the researching idea.

"My sister is supposed to be here too. She's working on Alnilam," Aurora took a quick glance at her phone to see if Dawn had responded to her text. So far nothing. She frowned a bit, hoping everything was all right with her. Generally everything was with her sister, so she wasn't that worried. Dawn was probably just caught up with her after school activities.

"I think this will defiinitely be an interesting project. I look forward to getting to know you guys better." Aurora gave a big smile. This was going to be fun.

Movement across the room caught her eye for a moment as another, somewhat older girl thrust her arm up over her head. In her hand was a pendant of some sort. The charm at the end looked somewhat like some sort of animal tooth perhaps. It was definitely hand made and probably important for some sort of sentimental reasons. Her hand was instantly drawn to the simple shell necklace around her own neck, a reminder of her mother.

But no, her innermost instincts told her whatever that was it was something more important than a reminder of someone lost to this world...something that went deeper. She could just tell by the look in her eyes. And without really thinking about it, Kailani's hand slipped into her pocket, feeling the spokes of the small anchor charm on her pen as she closed her hand around it.

Her thoughts sscattered as another girl approached, and Kailani forced her eyes away from the one with the pendant, realizing sheepishly she had probably been staring.

Between Brenna's friendly greeting, and the warm smile from Aurora, the last remnants of anxiety seemed to melt away and she let herself smile genuinely. Ah, so she's Sailor Alnitak., Kailani thought, mentally matching faces in her mind. "Hi Aurora, It's nice to finally get to meet you. It must be nice to have a sister working on the same project. I hope she comes soon" If she didn't, she was likely to hear it from Sirius. She felt a bit sorry for the girl.

Indeed, Kailani found that idea fascinating. It would have been nice to share this with someone when it was all new to her. SHe reminded herself to ask Aurora about her experience. Did her and her sister awaken at the same time? She suddenly remembered the other woman she had been looking at and turned to Aurora. "You know, I think I might have found one of the other girls working on our project. I could be wrong but..."

She walked over gathering her courage, and trusting her inner instincts. She was a reporter after all. You developed a nose for it after a while. Approaching the table she pulled her pen from her pocket, setting it down on the table. "That's an interesting pendant.", she said. "It must be very important to you." She glanced down at the pen and then at the other woman, waiting to see if recognition dawned on her. If Kailani was right, the other girl would know what that was. If not, then she would simply put it back in her pocket and make small talk until she could get away back to the other girls.

Spoiler:

Introductions went well, Brenna thought. With her hands on her hips she appreciated Aurora’s immediate backup, liking how quickly this was all coming together. The punctuality of Aurora’s sister was a little troubling, but then there were only three of them here so far out of seven; that was practically half, right? No need to stress until fifteen minutes had past. That was her limit – if they’re not there fifteen minutes after the agreed-upon meeting time, they’re either not coming or they don’t care about the project and she shouldn’t bother with them.

“You know,” the new girl said in a ponderous tone, “ I think I might have found one of the other girls working on our project. I could be wrong but...”

Brenna’s eyebrows raised; she was impressed! If this girl really did just find another one of them so fast, she might be a real asset to --- but then she watched where the girl was heading and wanted to call her back immediately. While she had no idea what Aurora’s sister was doing, she doubted the girl was another senshi. She glanced up at the twin with a touch of a disbelieving line on her mouth and asked, “So… do we wait for her to strike out here or back at the table?”

ooc:

Aurora stared blank face as Kailani walked over to her older sister. Her heart nearly stopped when she caught eye of the item in her hand. She recognized it immediately. Millions of thoughts raced through her head and she found it hard to voice any thoughts for a moment.

"So...do we wait for her to strike out here or back at the table?" Brenna's question just slipped through her mind with all the other crazy thoughts in her head.

There's no way. It was enough that Dawn was on this too. It was such a big secret for them. But they were twins, so it made sense too. But Zarya? What kind of coincidence is that? And how did she not notice before? How long has this been going on?

Deep down, Aurora felt a bit of excitement at the thought. The three of them? No secrets, a team, Aurora felt it was the chance to really get close with Zarya, after all the years they were separated. She wanted to laugh and cry at the same time.

"Brenna...I think she might be right."

“Brenna, I think she might be right.”

Her eyes moved back to the little table with its two occupants, one standing, one sitting, and the unconvinced expression remained. Okay. Twins, maybe. Sure; same genes, right? But siblings? What were the odds? It wasn’t like they all could be related – she was from England, Aurora and her sisters were from Alaska or something, and the new girl looked foreign, too; it’s like they were all gathered here, so genes had to have very little to do with it; so how, then, could the three sisters be part of the same team? Her eyes fell on the new girl’s little anchor charm, then the sister’s fang charm, and had to admit they looked a little similar to the charm on the chopstick in her hair. Grudgingly she waited to see how the sister would react.

“Hey Brenna,” her brother said, coming up behind the other side of the counter, “We kinda… slightly overcooked a batch of cookies. Do you want one?” he smiled, embarrassed.

She turned, sighed, and said, “Better make it four.”

Zarya watched as the unknown girl walked over to her. She could tell she seemed a bit intimidated and worried at the same time.

Why is she holding a pen and paper? Zarya thought.

The strange mysterious girl stopped at her table and seemed to muddle up the courage to get a few words out while holding the pen and paper in her hand.

"That's an interesting pendant.", she said. "It must be very important to you."

Zarya liked where this was going and knew that the pen and paper was just a distraction so no one else would pay attention.

"Yes. I have had it since I was in high school when it sort of found me one day." Zarya replied letting a smile escape. "Do you have anything important to you?" Replied Zarya as she fiddled with her necklace and glanced at it then back at the girl.

Spoiler:

Hearing the clock echoing the final toll of 8 bells, Sirius focused his beady little eyes in a most impressive glare, leaning into his gaze as he searched the general area for the missing senshi: Alnilam, Bellatrix, and Betelgeuse. Spying neither girl in his current position, even looking up, down, left, right, and around, he hopped irritably to a higher branch to survey a larger area, and started again. He clicked his beak in calculated irritation, then hopped up off of the branch to do a quick surveillance of the entire mainstreet area. The courtyard of the courthouse was empty; the park had some-odd number of couples flirting about, the shopfronts had a handful of customers still window shopping from store to store… but none of the females fit the description of the missing senshi.

He dove with agitation back to his branch, where he ‘harumphed’ with the best of them, bobbing up and down and hopping from foot to foot slowly as his mind came up with drilling exercises to teach those punctually-challenged girls a lesson. He ruffled his feathers, flapped his wings, and generally made for an incredibly perturbed site to any passerby; and to any passerby that stared too long, the crow got enormous pleasure from treating them with a large and loud “CAAAW!” Those three were in trouble, no doubt about it!

Spoiler:

Kailani knew by the look in the girl's eyes that she was right. "Some of the most important things seem to do that, don't they?", she said, allowing a small smile to play upon her face as she laid her charm flat out on the table in plain view and offered her hand. "I'm Kailani. It's nice to meet you."

Her dark hair fell slightly in front of her eyes as she then turned to the other two girls with a smile and nod. "This is Aurora and Brenna. We're all...working on the Orion research project.", she said, continuing with Aurora's idea. The other girl looked a bit older to be in their class, but perhaps others would believe her a tutor or an upperclassman helping out if anyone questioned them.

Little did Kailani know that at least in one case introductions were definitely not necessary.

Aurora heard Kailani introduce her to her sister. Her eyes locked with Zarya. What was she going to say? Should she say something? Aurora then looked around a bit.

"Uh...hey...Zarya...Funny how things work out right?" She laughed a bit nervously.

"By the way guys, Zarya is my older sister. And how the heck did this happen!?" Aurora nearly shrieked, but covered her mouth. She didn't want to draw any attention to them.

"So...why don't we all sit down and have a chat. I hope the others can make it."

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Myrina grumbled to herself as she left the restaurant. The boss had scheduled her for far too many hours that clashed with her classes again and it had taken a lot of effort just to get the situation fixed.

"You'd think after the fourth time the woman would learn," Myri said to no one in particular. She started down the street that led to her home, but the time depicted on her watch caught her attention before she had taken more than two steps.

It was just turning eight, and Myrina was hit with the sudden realization that she was supposed to be somewhere.

"The coffee shop!"

A couple of people passing by turned to look at her curiously and Myrina gave them a sheepish grin. She changed directions and began to walk towards the coffee shop that everyone had agreed on.

Myrina wasn't even sure if she wanted to go. It had taken her a long time to get used to the idea of her own identity as Sailor Bellatrix, and now she would have to get used to there being more girls in the same situation as her?

It was a strange idea.

But Myrina kind of liked knowing that there was a possibility that she wouldn't have to be alone in this. Even with all of the strange and new situations that might come up from the addition of more people, at least she wouldn't be alone, right?

Those thoughts were what made Myrina begin to run to her destination. It would still take her a few minutes to reach the coffee shop, even with height and agility on her side.

Myrina moved as quickly as she could and hoped that she wouldn't be *too* late.

As the coffee shop came into view, Myrina was proud that she had reached the area in six minutes as opposed to the ten she had figured.

Before she walked the final steps to enter the coffee shop, something moving in the trees caught her attention. Something small and black that was causing quite a ruckus, and Myrina was instantly on alert. Was it a new enemy?

She walked up to the tree for a closer look, peering through the leaves. But instead of some strange and creepy monster, she found a familiar-looking crow. She recognized him, but she had no idea what his name was. Did he even have a name?

"Um, hello little crow," she greeted. It felt incredibly odd to be talking to a crow of all things. For all she knew, it could be the wrong one. But she had a feeling that the real one would not have liked it if she had walked right past him without some kind of acknowledgement. Myri hoped that the crow couldn't tell time and didn't realize she was late. "Are the others inside?"

With that she turned in place to look through the large glass of the coffee shop to see if she could make out who was inside, but it was impossible to recognize anyone.

Zarya was happy to know that she finally found someone else like her. She began to assume that the other girls huddled on the other side of the cafe were also "cursed" like her. Her sister, was among the huddle. Did that mean the other twin was also carrying the burden of being a Senshi?

Zarya got up and walked over to the group purposely ignoring her sister. "Looks like we will be stuck with each other for a long time." Zarya smiled.

After four good, solid minutes of not-so-quiet anger, Sirius stilled, hunching on a midway branch to glare at the coffee shop’s corner, now daring the girls to show up with all limbs intact. Any excuse other than bodily harm would not cut it – they had their five minute grace period; that should be enough for anybody. He ruffled his feathers, glaring up at the clock in the square: six minutes. Six. For every minute the girls are late, they would do 5 minute sprints, 10 lunges, and 2 early-morning attack drills. Maybe even extra agility lessons, just for good measure. Yes… more speed would’ve helped them to not be late; that’d be the rationale.

He hunkered down even more, taking malicious joy in deciding the methods for the early-morning false alarms. A well-timed and loud call at their window? A sharp mental prod? And what time would be best? 3 o’clock was the ‘witching hour’, but maybe earlier than that…maybe he’d observe them quietly, figure out what time they actually fell asleep, and wake them in the nearest dream-state period between2 and 4 in the morning. Yes… perfect…

Suddenly a tall blonde young woman strode around the corner and he flapped his wings once in surprise and recognition: Sailor Bellatrix. Pinning his wings back down, he waited as she approached, giving her a critical eye. She greeted him cautiously, as though unsure of his identity; he stood taller at her comment – little crow? Little? His stare turned even more critical, his eyes in little slits as he beheld her. When her introductions were over – without an excuse, he might add – he ignored her question and asked one of his own:

~“Ah, Bellatrix.”~ Sirius stated haughtily, turning his head to the side in a dismissive manner, ~“So you’ve finally decided to grace us with your presence. How wonderful; it’s only been six minutes since the appointed meeting time.”~ he turned back to her, invoking his serious sense for dramatics, “~Are you aware, Senshi, that a six minute delay would have meant the death of that woman you saved? And you happened upon her by sheer chance – imagine what would be the case should an attack be verified on the other side of town and you could not be bothered to check your watch for the specifics. It could mean the difference between life and death, for you, for your team, and for innocent people. Punctuality is an important part of being a defender of this planet, especially with villains such as Scorpio so intent upon us.”~

He let his words hang, but then, lecture finished in his eyes (whether she believed it to be so or not), he nodded towards the shop. ~”Now go meet your team. We’ll talk about your late penalties later.”~

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

"It does look like that doesn't it?", she said with a smile. Kailani finally took a seat at the table with the other girls, pushing stray hair from her eyes as she set ehr things down. The girls united so far could not be any different looking. They were quite a mized bunch, herself included.

It was nice to finally be able to speak freely, if a bit quietly. "So I'm curious. How long have you all known about being a senshi?" She herself had found out only two months ago or so, and it still occasionally seemed unreal.

Just a few minutes with these girls and Brenna already had a feeling that the tension between the siblings would have to be resolved or buried before any real work could be done. Trust was key with these things – like on the team. If she couldn’t trust the other guards to move with her and anticipate her passes, they’d never win a game. When the four of them returned to the table, Brenna retained her seat on one of the outer edges, letting others scoot in; she never really enjoyed sitting in the inside seats of any booth, let alone a giant circular one. It made her feel small and it made getting out and moving ten times harder, so she always played chivalrous and let people in before her so she could have her way. Besides, if another likely candidate came in, she’d rather get the initial interview over with quickly rather than being stuck between people as they wondered how to approach.

Don’t think, just do. She half-smiled to herself, sipping at her smoothie as she considered adopting the phrase as her motto.

Judging from the inflection at the end of her sentence, one of the girls – Kailani – had asked a question. … Unfortunately for Brenna, she hadn’t heard a word of it. She waited for someone else to answer first and would judge the question by their answer.

So I'm curious. How long have you all known about being a senshi?

"Since high school. It changed me for the better since I used to be a...." Zarya said openly not afraid to hide her past. "It changed me for the better. It opened my eyes. I call it a blessed curse, but a curse in general." Zarya replied smiling at Kailani. She could tell the two would get along great. As for her sisters, she decided to let it go. She could only image how they felt finding out, specially due to their age.

"How about you?" Zarya asked directly to Aurora. There was no doubt now she was one of them. Why else would she suddenly appear in that cafe?

Myrina turned to stare up at the crow when he began to speak to her. She took the liberty of ignoring the fact that a crow was speaking inside of her mind at the moment. It was just another strange thing that she didn't feel like thinking about at the moment.

She frowned as the crow went on to explain to her every possible bad thing that could have ever happened in the course of six minutes. He even mentioned the women Myrina had saved when she first found out she was a senshi! How did he already know so much?

Myrina wanted to correct him, to tell him that if there was a dire emergency that she would have done her best to be where she was most needed, but Myri was pretty certain that the little crow wasn't even going to really listen to her at the moment.

He definitely had a superiority complex.

"Now go meet your team. We'll talk about your late penalties later."

Myrina knew she had just been thoroughly dismissed. She raised an eyebrow. "Thanks, little crow," she said, though her voice made it clear that she wasn't thankful in the least. She didn't mean to be rude, but the crow hadn't started out the conversation in the best way, and Myrina didn't need to waste time being berated by a silly crow when she had other senshi to meet.

Her heart began to race, just a little, as she started the approach the coffee shop. The bell above the door jingled a happy tune as she entered. Myrina scanned the room. It wasn't overly crowded, and there was only one table that held a group of girls. The crow had said 'team', that meant a group, right?

The little crow could have given her better instructions, at least.

Myrina sighed to herself, feeling suddenly unsure, before plucking up all of her courage and ignoring all of the gripping feeling in her chest telling her to just leave. This was worth the awkwardness of getting to know new people. Right?

She approached the table, and hoped that she had assumed correctly. "Um, hello," she said, cutting in during a lull in the conversation. "Are you the uh, team I'm supposed to be meeting here today?"

Myrina held back a cringe and tried to convince herself that her heart was not going to beat out of her chest as she waited for the group to acknowledge her.

She also pushed away the doubt that this group of young girls might not actually be the group she was looking for at all.

Spoiler:

Underneath the basement of a restricted business building, a man sat in front of several computers. On his right and left side lounged two large dogs, a Doberman and a Rottweiler, each with a cautious eye trained on the space surrounding their master. No one would catch Graffias off-guard while they were around.

Each of the computer screens held valuable data and information concerning several of his latest projects. With a calculating glare, he clicked the mouse and deleted an e-mail. The information written inside had been troubling and not something he wished to dwell on. Things had to change around here. He swirled the chair around and faced the desk behind him. The desk had been kept meticulously clean, just like the computer desk. Graffias clicked a few buttons on the telephone and cleared his voice. A delightful female voice answered at the other end.

"Hello, Cindy. Please send Aculeus or Acumen, whoever is currently available. I would like to speak to them personally in my officer. Afterwards, I would appreciate a roast beef sandwich from the cafeteria. Be sure to buy yourself something," he said, his voice was deep and powerful, but always offered comfort and attention to a pretty woman... or man. "It's on me," he continued, adding a lit to his tone that, without a doubt, caused his secretary to smile.

He clicked a few buttons again and the phone hung up. Before the knock at the door answered, Graffias had already stood on his feet, the two dogs on either side. He always had to be the one to open the door, as if to display that he was the only that controlled who did and did not enter his office.

"Come in," he said in a way to displayed his displeasure with the current situation. Graffias was an intimidating man at full height, not to mention the powerful dog that flanked either side. He used this intimidation to his advantage, especially with underlings. He was top dog and he would allow no one to challenge him.

"Now, let us discuss the current situation. I take it you already know to which event I am talking about," he said while closing the door. "Sit," he demanded, gesturing to the two chairs in front of his desk.

Zarya looked at the girl who called herself Myrina.

"I am also in the process of figuring that out myself." Zarya replied with a smile on her face as she glanced over at her sister. "But I guess I can trust you, since you are asking what most of us are wondering..." Zarya then lifted her necklace exposing the amber jewel which was strung on it. "Do you have something similar?" Zarya asked as she made a clawing action with her hand.

Zarya then looked back at who she assumed were also "cursed" like her. "Who else are we waiting for? Perhaps we should get this meeting started and then fill in whoever is left later on"

Spoiler:

Administrative Bump!

Cindy knew the meeting had adjourned when Aculeus and Acumen rushed out of the office with their metaphorical tails tucked between their legs. She knew personally that Graffias knew how to... dominate those who walked through his office doors. He just tended to 'dominate' her differently than Aculeus and Acumen, Cindy thought with a sly smile.


She placed her sandwich on her desk before approaching Graffias' office door. The door opened before her hand could touch it. Cindy squealed in surprise, but managed to hold onto her boss' sandwich. The office secretary blushed a bright pink as her boss chuckled lightly at her expense. "Sorry, did I scare you?" Graffias said, leaning against the doorway. He reached forward, his hand brushing and lingering on Cindy's arm. "I did not mean to scare you," he said, lowering his voice. Finally, his hand touched the sandwich plate and he took it from his flustered secretary.

"Would you join me for lunch, Cindy?" He asked, motioning into his office. "Aculeus and Acumen have been given their duties, so they will not be returning today. I have an additional duty already prepared for you in my office," he said with a smile.

~~~~~
(NPCing Aculeus and Acumen)
The office secretary would no doubt have a much more pleasant time in Graffias' office than either Aculeus or Acumen. Graffias had made it painfully clear that the latest events had displeased him greatly. The twins had no control over the course of unexpected events, but, of course, they weren't going to tell him that! Instead, they would do what he asked and retrieve Lesath.


As a pair, they approached Lesath's doorway. When Lesath answered, the twins eerily said in unison "your turn," before departing.

Something about when they first transformed, then? Brenna was both interested and bored – while she wanted to break out the play-by-play of her own first battle, she had the feeling that some of these girls might take forever in the telling and completely skip over the juicy parts, like stabbing scorpion monsters with swords, and instead focus on their ‘feelings’ about the situation. She sighed, stirring what was left of her smoothie, and stuck the straw back in her mouth to take a nice, long draw when someone approached the table. Expecting her brother with the cookies he had promised, she slowly glanced up, only to sit up straight when she realized it was a new face at the table.

A new face on a tall, tall girl.

Brenna sat up even straighter at the mention of a team the blonde was meeting, and she immediately went to accessing the girl and approving – the girl was in good shape. She smiled and was about to ask the girl to sit when Aurora’s sister suddenly decided to cut to the chase. She approved, though an eyebrow raised high with the girl’s clawing hand, but decided to tackle the second question rather than the first.

“I’m thinking there should be seven of us,” she offered as a matter-of-fact statement, leaning back and crossing her arms. “One for each star in the constellation. I’ll be –“ she glanced around meaningfully, reminding them that they were not in a private setting, as she continued, “studying the star Saiph.”

“You mean you can study?” her brother commented, trying to be cool around the college-aged girls. She rolled her eyes as Greg flashed a ‘charming’ smile and pushed his black hair out of his face before placing a plate full of chocolate chip cookies on the table. They were extremely crispy, but otherwise looked almost edible.

“Thanks, Greg,” she said dismissively, taking a cookie from the plate and refusing eye-contact. If he received any encouragement whatsoever, they’d probably be stuck with him all night.

[spoiler=OOC]BTW ladies, Greg is totally available ^.~ black hair, bright green eyes, a trace of muscles from soccer, charming smile~~ Just sayin'.[/spoiler.

A block away from where the meeting was held the day before, several residents of the city were enjoying a fun-filled day at a small carnival hosted by a local community center. Although the event was small, it had garnered the attention of many residents, young and old alike. This was an excellent location for the introduction of Scorpion and his associates to the fair city.

A group of child played a rousing game of tag in their costumes designed specifically for the parade and later costume contest. Parents lounged nearby, although occasionally pestered by a request for money for this toy or that treat. Then, a small blue orb rolled into the center of the children. Some of the children took notice and decided a game of keep-away would be even better than tag. One child went to pick up the blue orb just as a red orb and a yellow orb rolled toward the parents. A green and a purple orb rolled toward the booths. A pink orb rolled toward the few mechanical rides.

As the child touched the blue orb, it began to hiss. The child's hand stopped before it reached the ball. A noxious green cloud began to emanate from all the colored orbs. Not long afterwards, people began to cough and run away from the carnival while screaming. The noxious gas acted quickly and many people began to collapse to the ground. Before long, only a lucky few were able to escape the gases while the others were left behind to await whatever fate had in store for them.

Answer to the continuity question...

Spoiler:

Zarya was walking back to her living quarters when she noticed a strange smell in the air. She felt her gut tighten and threw her hand over her nose and mouth and she began to gag. "What is that?" she thought as she turned the corner to a horrid site.

"Oh my......" Zarya thought in her mind and not out loud. If something was around, she didn't want to pull attention to herself. She held her breath and freed her hands off her face and pulled a handkerchief out of her backpack and tied it around her face, only leaving her eyes exposed. (let's pretend this works .

She clenched her necklace and pulled our her cellphone with her other hand and send a mass message to the other "special" girls, like her.

Admin hyper bunny bump

Myrina was enjoying her day off. No work, no class, life was good. She reclined back in her bed, her head resting against the headboard and a cool drink in her hand.

She took a long gulp and then set the drink aside on the nightstand. She switched position on her bed and tried to ignore the thoughts that desperately wanted to ruin her day off. But no, she was not going to think about yesterday and the meeting, thank you very much. She had spent all of last night going over the meeting and thinking about the other girls and the situation they were in, and Myri was just tired and exhausted from all of it.

A part of her, the most stubborn of all stubborn parts, didn't want to believe this was real. That some cruel person was just wanted to get revenge on her for something.

But Myrina knew that was a lie. She knew that this was truly real, and that all of this was happening. She was a senshi, and those other girls were senshi and they were expected to fight by the orders of a tiny talking crow.

Myrina shook her head at the thoughts, and sighed to herself. Maybe she should go out for a run or something, because sitting here alone with only her own thoughts for company was beginning to give her a headache. There had been talk in the restuarant yesterday of a small carnival that was supposed to be happening today. Maybe that would be fun to attend.

As Myrina got up and put on her shoes and coat, she felt something... strange. Something that made her uneasy and paranoid. She glanced behind her, half expecting to see someone in the room with her even though she knew that she was alone.

The ringing tune of her cell phone going off in her pocket made Myrina jump, and she glared at the device as she pulled it out and read the message. It was from Zarya, and the message itself was kind of distressing. Myri stared down at it for a few seconds longer, frowning, before she slipped the phone back into her pocket and exited her dorm room.

Her heart raced painfully against her chest as she ran down to the place that matched Zarya's specifications. She pushed herself so that she would get there as fast as possible.

Even though she felt afraid, another part of her felt that this was something she and the other girls needed to do. Myrina focused on that second feeling, and kept on running.

Zarya placed a hand on her necklace and her hair began float above her. Her Senshi symbol of glowed on her head as she began to transform. It had been a while since she had done so, so it felt foreign to her. Soon, Sailor Mintaka's spirit rushed into her body and Zarya was transformed into her Dino influenced power. Ghost like images of claws appeared on the ends of her hands.

Spoiler:

Sailor Mintaka heard something screech from above as something fell from the building next to her.

DEFENSIVE GROWL! Sailor Mintaka yelled as an echo reverberated whatever was coming at her. She flew backwards from the impact into the wall of a building, but at least the attack had missed her due to her defensive attack.

The gases continued to disperse, but the balls from which they came stopped emitting gases. The gases already took effect and the majority of the onlookers and festival participants lay on the ground unconscious, perhaps further damaged. A soft light left their bodies and flew toward upwards away from the festival grounds to places unseen.

Meanwhile, the youma attacking Sailor Mintaka growled loudly as its attack was foiled by a defensive maneuver. The justice fighter flew backwards from the impact into the wall of a nearby building while the youma advanced forward with evil intent. The youma had a mission to accomplish and the justice fighter would not stand in the way.

With an evil grin, it turned its head sideways and cackled. Its head continued to turn far past a human's acceptable limits. It cackled again, then lunged forward with a fist outstretched to connect with Sailor Mintaka.

Lesath stood elsewhere, but still close enough to the proceedings to see the events play out. It was a pity the youma would likely be slain by the sailor senshi, but Lesath knew it would be beneficial to see the strengths and weaknesses before she tangled with the defenders of love and justice. The youma's success or failure mattered little.