Sailor Mercury flipped open her visor, although there were paltry few clues to analyze at the moment. Despite having been recently attacked and civilians endangered, the museum looked remarkably clean—the monster conspicuously missing, that event itself synonymous with more trouble. Her fingers flew across the keyboard as she typed, trusting present company to keep alert as blue eyes sought additional information. Where could that Cardian have gone?

Sailor Venus looked around and saw an advertisement poster on a wall near her for a new skate that was going to be released that month. "Who cares about a pathetic advertisement right now?!" she screamed in anger. Sailor Moon came towards her and asked "Venus, what's the word?". She just wanted to continue a game that they were playing earlier. "...psychotic" Sailor Venus replied with a low voice.

Sailor Mars stiffened, sensing a mighty energy. She took count of how many posters had been found; and there were quite a few! "Something's not right here..." She mumbled. "No true advertiser would misuse paper like this!" With a small cry, Sailor Mars threw one of her talismans, and it hit true to the target. It just so happened to land on one of the posters, causing the poster to shrivel up into a darkened and gritty. If it had just been a simple poster, it wouldn't have reacted the way it did. "There's so many of them!" Mars exclaimed. "You'd think a head of some evil council did this!"

Sailor Jupiter jumped as the poster morphed on her left. "Well, that was... interesting," she commented. "It seems like our foe is quite slippery this time." She looked around warily, idly wondering how many advertisement channels were actually controlled by dark forces all this time. She always knew they lied about the shine on that crockpot she ended up buying.

So the posters were to blame! Sailor Mercury regarded them again, this time with a more cynical attitude as she educated herself on this type of evil. The readings on her display... how could these harbor dark energy rated over nine thousand?!

"Be careful!" she attempted to warn the others, catching Sailor Moon mid-stride to approach the devious advertisements.

Sailor Moon frowned first at a poster advertising juice, then toward Mercury's hand on her wrist and complained, "It is just a piece of paper - even if it is also evil." 

"We're not babies," Sailor Jupiter agreed cautiously, "but we should be careful.  After all, these are more than just a scam for buyers."  She took a few steps deeper into the mall, into the shadows until a loud yowl echoed against the walls, and a cat darted away from the team.  Sailor Jupiter jumped back a few feet and muttered, "Who leaves their pets in a mall?"

"Someone who cares about history," a woman's voice called out in a deadpan tone as she rounded the corner to walk towards them with the the old cat Sailor Jupiter had scared off held securely in her arms, its fluffy tail waving back and forth peevishly, "And it's a museum, not a mall; though it may be hard to tell with all the advertisements the new director has approved." The young woman, wearing the telltale uniform of a docent, wore glasses with a delicate golden chain and had her hair styled into a bun with two chopsticks keeping it in place, had an air of confidence that advertised that her sense of self was strong and unflappable. "Personally, the amount of non-educational posters plastered all over exhibit spaces makes me itchy, but who am I to talk? I'm just the woman in charge of alerting everyone should the dinosaur eggs hatch," she smiled ruefully, reaching out a hand to the nearest Senshi. "I'm Taiko Hikaru, are you all here to investigate the attack?"

Sailor Jupiter knew that she could imitate a fish - her mouth was open and her eyes were wide.  Her brain was also a bit muddled with embarrassment, but she could still see that the woman walked around as if she knew the building, and she watched her talk to others and shake Sailor Mercury's hand.  The others could convince the woman that she didn't have to do anything dramatic like call the police or the military, and the woman might be able to give them more information on the creepy poster.  Instead, Sailor Jupiter paid attention to a faint, reedy cry she could hear coming from down the hall.

Note:

The look on the cat's face in the stranger's arms gave Sailor Venus pause. The woman herself seemed to be normal enough but the furball seemed protective - still swishing it's tail vigorously. They would have to tread carefully.

"Yes, this is quite the riddle, isn't it?" she responded to the woman. "Did all of these advertisements come through the museum's mailbox by any chance?"

The clever docent shrugged at the group of sailor soldiers, broadcasting a sense of disinterest at the question.

"I don't handle the mail," she stated. "I'm not some servant here—I supervise the exotic dinosaur eggs."

Wasn't that what she had just told them?

The scary cry from down the hall grew louder, finally drawing everyone's attention before Jupiter could speak up about it. A small black beetle skittered across the floor, obviously in a rush to get away from whatever had made the sound. The air was now ripe with dark energy flowing into the main room where they were standing. The adhesive on each and every poster on the walls around them started to slowly peel away, leaving the papers bending eerily towards them on all sides.

Sailor Jupiter whirled around, eyeing the limp-yet-malevolent posters as that sensation of evil mounted around them. She wouldn't have called them nondescript before, but now there was no question that something bad was going on. Something formed slowly where dark, depressed energy swirled together.

"Permit me to introduce myself... and collect your energy for my great mistress!" cried the creature that had formed there, looking somewhat like a walking poster herself.

Sailor Jupiter glared at the creature, the cry for energy causing her to recall old monsters they'd fought in the past. As she began to summon her lightning energy, her intent was not secretive.

They'd defeated energy-draining monsters before, and they would defeat them again! "We don't want your introductions, hope you don't mind!" Then she released the lightning energy, sending it to drop right on the poster creature's head.

At 13 posts, we did not win! Thanks for trying, everyone!