by Emiko, Tami, Jen, KJ and Crescentia

Normally, if Jace T. Kellen had been at the Salem Civic Centre, one would make an accurate guess that she was there to blow it up - especially as the Salem Civic Centre was hosting the Roanoke Youth Science Fair. Such things were Nerd Conventions, and Nerd Conventions were to be despised, not attended. However, this Nerd Convention was different; Jace Kellen was partaking in it.

Jace enjoyed science, usually - it was full of undiluted hydrochloric acid and dissecting mice and flaming bunsen burners - but putting her knowledge on display was incredibly Beneath Her. But for her year, the fair had been compulsory, which Jace disliked. Having had her first two projects disbanded - 'Retard-Gene Investigation' and 'Blood Bacteria' - she had finally entered the engineering section and designed a new gutter. Fate had dictated her project had made it this far, so now she was here on a rainy Saturday morning, staring at projects about leaf mould.

Dying of boredom, Jace rolled on to the next project and stared at it with obvious disinterest. Tea? What kind of social reject did a project about tea?

Good God, she was bored. The space between the long table filled with projects and the wall was narrow, so she considered setting up a toll booth, but in a fit of apathy she decided against it and spent the next few minutes poking at the teabag display.

"Excuse me, can I help you?"

The sudden interruption by a tall, brown-haired boy with thin glasses and a British accent was a momentarily unpleasant surprise. Then Jace realized this must be the person whose experiment she was scrutinizing.

"My name is Theodore Parfett. I see you were examining my project?" he said amiably, gesturing at the display.

Jace raised a red eyebrow towards the newcomer. See the Nerdus Britanus in his natural habitat, poking away intruders from his beloved tea. Putting on a plummy accent, she picked up one of the teabags and sniffed at it disdainfully. "Whai, yes. Ai was wondering how on airth yoo could use indian-tea teabags when everyone knowhs thait Earl Grey tea is of suu-peerior quahlity?"

Theodore stood stock-still for a moment, a complacent look plastered on his face, but he was clearly not happy underneath his mask. "And waste the Earl Grey?" he said simply. The corner of his mouth twitched in distaste.

Jace burst into normally-accented raucous laughter and rolled her eyes at him. "For the love of God!"

"And the Queen," he added automatically. His eyes narrowed just slightly as he looked down his nose at the wheelchair-bound Jace.

The glare did nothing to quell the redhead's sudden fit of giggles, only serving to make them more violent. She managed to choke them away before belting out, "You need to go into surgery to remove that stick from your ass!" before devolving into laughter again.

Clearly, this was not going over well with Theodore. He did his best at a veiled insult, his conscience just barely keeping him in line. "Yeah, well, I'd like to see your science fair project."

The laughter died away and she nodded proudly, puffing up in her wheelchair. "It was a manly man's project, in the engineering section, tea-boy Theodore."

Poor Theodore stood there with his mouth hanging open. He finally seemed to get a hold of himself and placed one foot on Jace's wheelchair, quickly sending it rolling down the aisle as he waved a friendly farewell at Jace. "Ta-ta!"

"Aaaaaaaaayaaah!" Jace made a grab at her wheelchair. "I'm going to rip your balls off and feed them to your incestuous family! I'm going to frag you like you've never been fragged before! I lost these legs in 'Nam!" She hit the wall with a thump.

"Americans," muttered Theodore, shaking his head ruefully.

Zaza was bored and disappointed.

"Zaza's bored and disappointed!" The tiny girl yelled to no one in particular, in attempt to make herself look angry and intimidating, which was the absolute last thing anyone would perceive her as. She had woken up super-duper early this morning - 9:00 AM!

Her Physics professor had told her class that extra credit would be given for anyone who visited the science fair- Zaza asked if there would be ponies and a ferris wheel there, and Mr. Brandmyer had just sighed a lot. Zaza was doing some sighing herself - for she saw no ponies or the ferris wheel.

"I have a feeling that this fair isn't all it's cracked up to be." She pouted, pausing to look at a pink-themed display board. While it may have looked pretty, it was quite boring. She skipped along, still hopeful she might find some ponies.

Then, she stopped in her tracks. Was that..? Could it be..? It was, it was!

"M-m-m-m-m-mousies!" She squealed, and made a beeline for a particular project that involved white rodents.

"IIEIIEIEE!" Was the incredibly annoying noise that she made, pressing her nose against the glass. The mice, terrified, shuddered in the furthest corner away from the purple-haired maniac. "Allo lil mousies! Want to plaaaay?" Zaza had enough sense to know she shouldn't mess with someone's project, but she couldn't help it- she opened the top and leaned in, trying to reach a mouse.

"Excuse me," a voice even smaller and higher in pitch than Zaza's said. A little brown mouse was sitting on the table, looking up at Zaza with inquisitive eyes. "Sailor Sextans?"

"Nenene..?" Zaza dropped down from the mouse cage, looking right to left. All the mice heaved a sigh of relief. She heard a crash in the distance, and a few spiteful words, but her focus was on that high-pitched voice.

Zaza was a bit angry- No one knew her secret identity! Now she'd get in trouble with those other people in funny costumes! "Grararar! Who said that?" she demanded, hands on hips, trying to look confident, although she was terrified that someone had caught her traipsing around in a skimpy outfit and skates.

A squeak answered her, and Zaza spied a mousie that was already out of the cage! "Mousie!" She giggled happily, and grabbed the brown mouse as quick as she could.

"Oooooh! Nice mousie!" She cooed, holding it eye level, petting it with one finger. She'd completely forgotten that someone had called her by her senshi name.

It became quickly evident that the mouse was squeaking in objection and, in a voice so small it could barely be heard a few feet away, trying to talk to Zaza. "Sailor Sextans, m-my name is T-timoch-charis..." The mouse began to quiver fearfully.

"Eeeheehee!" Zaza's small mind slowly registered the fact the mouse was speaking to her. "Ee..hee..IEEEEE!" She squealed, completely terrified.

"C-could you please p-put me down?" the mouse continued.

Still making an odd wailing noise, Zaza set the shaking mouse down on the table, taking more care then usual. "You must be a special mousie..." She said, completely serious as she nodded her head, calming down. In the short time that had passed since she met Gawain, the notion of guardians had left her mind completely.

Wiping her face with a dainty paw, Timocharis gave a tiny nod, seeming to gain a measure of confidence as she did. "I can tell that you have been awakened. I didn't know there were other guardians here. If you please, tell me who awakened you?"

Zaza perked up, recalling the big bird that didn't seem to like her squeezing him to death - "AIIIE! It was this big purty birdie who was suuuu cyuuute and Briony has purty hair too!" Zaza squealed loudly, but added silently as she got a few odd looks, "...that was the special birdie that awakened me." She finished it off with a slow nod, trying to act important.

"A- a big bird?" Timocharis squeaked. If a mouse could turn pale, she surely would have. "Do you remember his name, then?"

Gesturing with her arms, Zaza starting to describe Gawain. "Ooh, he was long and brown-ish and had shiny eyes and and a- Oh.." She remembered the question that was asked of her. "His name was Gawain." She said, looking at her pretty pink toenails, a bit disappointed that she could not hug the little mousie like the big bird.

"Oh, Gawain!" the mouse exclaimed, sounding a bit fearful at hearing his name. She seemed to be frightened by everything. "So, Sailor Sextans, what's your name? Mine is, of course, Timocharis, but you can call me Charis." Charis gave a tiny, enthusiastic squeak.

"I'm Zaza, nice ta meetcha Charis! Yuppers. People say my name is silly, but it's really not! My mommy chose it for me and it means something in some language.. but I forgot." She finished, and then patted down her hair, thinking for a moment. "And Mommy says I shouldn't give my full name out to strangers... good advice, y'know, kept me safe for 18 years so far." Zaza beamed, as if she had just said something incredibly witty.

"Your mother must be very smart!" Charis agreed. "You should meet my friend Tibby. He is very smart, too. In fact, he is Horologium Kamen, another member of our team! I left him next to his science fair project."

"Hee! I like you lil mousie!" Trying to be gentle, Zaza picked Charis up again. A little light bulb went off over her head. "Does Tibby's project involve cute fouffie ani-maaals?" She said, becoming excited. Zaza was dying to find those ponies.

The little mouse nuzzled her nose in Zaza's palm affectionately. "No, his project is about tea. We should go meet him!"

Just then, there was a rather large crash and more shouting erupted. The words "Smeggy American!" could just be made out. Instantly, Timocharis sat up on her hind legs and began to look around.

"Oh no!" she cried. "That sounded like Tibby!"

Zaza, still crestfallen that this 'Tibby' should study tea and not ponies, whipped her head in the direction where the crash came from. "Nene, Tibby sounds like my Physics professor, Mr. Branmyer. He has a funny voice too, and he likes to sigh a lot, like when I-" Noticing Charis' growing concern, Zaza stopped short again. "Waai, I'll take you there!" Zaza said, skipping away, happy to have something to do besides look at projects.

Amir Adham cast a scowling glance in the direction of some sort of chaos happening on the other side of the tables, although his view was blocked by tall displays. He caught the words "Smeggy American" and something about tea.

"So tell me," he said, trying to refocus his attention on the owlish, spotty-faced, bespectacled high schooler whose project he was trying to judge, "After the program processes the cube, what does it do with the information?"

"I've written out the coding, so you can see how the information is compiled and we track it..."

Amir nodded and made appreciative noises as he made little notations to himself on his scoresheet, glanced over the coding, and kept an ear on the invisible conversation.

The scene that awaited at the other side of the room was one of chaos.

Now that her ire had been raised, Jace threw herself into battle with practiced skill; ramming an extremely surprised Tibby, she gained herself the only advantage she could - making him fall down. Jumping out of her chair with an expression on her face that would make any normal man want to curl up and await death, Jace easily grabbed him in a headlock, taking what time she could before he threw her light body off.

"I'm gonna crack you open and send you home to momma!" she bellowed, and then, inexplicably: "You hand out hope like it was candy in your pocket!"

Thus followed much noise.

"Hey, stoppit, leggo!" Tibby blurted out, trying to reach up and grab Jace. His hands brushed past her a few times, but he never closed them. Theodore Parfett, British Nationalist that he was, was using all of his mental control to prevent actually hurting Jace. In his mind, not only was she a girl, she was obviously physically inferior.

Then again, her beating on his head said otherwise. In all his years of playing soccer back in England, Tibby had never come across someone with this kind of arm strength. (The game was soccer, not wrestling, after all.) He finally managed to get his own arms in a position to block most of Jace's attacks and began to yell as loudly as he could for her to stop.

"You should've thought 'bout that before you invaded my Rhineland," she screeched in his ear, too far gone to care about the fact that he had her locked. Instead, she shoved herself forward, so that the pair rolled over and over on the floor. Finally, Jace wrestled him onto his back, pinning his arms down. "Thought you were the type who liked their women on top!" she sniggered triumphantly, and pulled his arm painfully behind his head.

Amir made the last of his tick marks onto his score sheet. He thanked the boy for his time, wished him luck, and strode purposefully around the tables to where the continuing-ruckus was coming from.

Oddly enough, none of the other judges or coordinators seemed to have noticed what was going on yet. A few contestants were watching with great interest as some girl with short cherry-red hair was perched on top of some boy and attacking him. Oddly enough, the girl had no legs and there was an empty wheelchair nearby.

Kids, thought Amir scornfully. He stepped into the chaos. With his right hand, he reached out for one of her wrists; he laced the fingers of his left hand through Jace's hair and pulled.

Zaza, with Charis in tow, arrived on the scene just as Amir had grabbed onto Jace's hair. "Eep, that mean man is hurting our friend Tibby! Eiiiie!" Zaza whimpered, then quickly dumped Timocharis on the nearest table. Before the mouse could correct her, Zaza had already latched herself onto Amir's left arm, using all her strength (which wasn't much). Zaza had mistaken Jace for Charis friend Tibby; and decided to do everything in her power to save her.

"Eaaagh! No fighting, nunununununu!" Zaza screamed, sounding much like a fussy five year old. Needless to say, Zaza's puny effort wasn't making any difference. Still, she kept a tight grip, hoping she could pull the "meanie head" away.

"Aggravating, very aggravating," Kanene commented between tight teeth. She glanced down in the direction of the fight again, watching a purple-haired girl pass her by in the same direction. Suddenly she came up with the best plan of action. She ducked down and started rummaging through her bag, hoping that he was still there. "Tycho, get out of there."

A few seconds passed and the salamander's head poked out groggily through the opening, blinking his eyes slightly. "I do hope you realise that I was sleeping," Tycho yawned.

"You can catch up on your sleep later. Right now I want you to check out that fight for me and report to me afterwards what is going on," Kanene instructed.

"Fight?" A few shrieks confirmed Tycho's question. He blinked some more, slowly gaining his bearings. "Yeah, sure - I'm going." Tycho darted his body out fully and scuttled down along the wall. He would have continued onwards, hadn't he spotted the field mouse that was perched upon the table. His stomach churned hungrily, as his eyes locked onto the potential food.

Amir knew he was going to end up with a monster bruise on his thigh. He hadn't completely avoided hitting a table leg as he fell, although he had fortunately kept from demolishing the project which had been placed upon that table. He jumped to his feet and repinned the "JUDGE" badge to his shirt pocket. It had fallen off during the tussle.

"YOU." He scowled blackly at Jace. "I don't care who you are, I don't care why this happened, but I'm sure you can pretty much consider yourself disqualified from this competition."

He didn't know for sure, but it had to be in the rules somewhere that a snotty high school student who called a judge a retarded piece of fecal matter could be ejected.

He loomed over the fighters, his hands on his hips.

"Oh, woe is me!" Jace jeered at him, her voice a low hiss. "Don't try that one on me, you geeky little prig. Just because you slept with the head of this operation and got a pretty badge doesn't mean you can disqualify me." She raised her voice again. "That's discrimination towards crippled people! You bastard! I didn't get both my legs bitten off by a shark to be ordered around by you, you snot-nosed monkey-pimping sadist!"

"I bet the shark died of indigestion," sneered Amir in return. "Tell me how they let the infants into this competition division. After you've harnessed your own hormones so you don't go pouncing random contestants, why don't you come back in a few years and reenter your project?"

"Because you'll be older and even uglier by then, and you're no eye-candy now," she smirked. "And don't talk to me about live women's hormones, because the only lay you can ever get is the knothole in your desk!"

"Owwies..." Zaza was whimpering to herself, after having fallen backwards and into a few spectators. It was nothing new, she was used to being thrown off of her skateboard, or when she tripped in her skates. Standing up on wobbly legs, she barely caught Amir disqualifying Jace (Or who she thought to be Tibby).

"Ieee!" Zaza became infuriated. Charis said Tibby was her friend! Tibby was smart! "You can't disqualify Tibby, cause the lil mousie Charis said she was really smart and that she's my friend!" She pleaded, shaking Amir's arm violently. It didn't occur to Zaza that the onlooking crowd was snickering at her statement about a talking "mousie".

From the ground, the "real" Tibby let out a groan. "Um, I'm Tibby," he offered to Zaza, staring at her for the "talking mouse" comment. It seemed that Charis was running her mouth a little too much.

Pulling himself to his feet with the help of a nearby table, the Brit wiped off his trousers and turned to Amir. "I don't think anyone was hurt... The fight was my fault, not hers. If anyone deserves to be disqualified, it's me." He put on his most chivalrous face and tried to ignore the fact he thought he had just seen a lizard on the floor. Tibby sincerely hoped it wasn't a lizard, because it was a little-known fact that he was terrified of the creatures.

If Kanene hadn't woken me up so late, I'd have a chance to have something to eat, the salamander thought to himself, creeping up slowly towards the table. I might as well try to grab something now, and that critter looks small enough. With the stealth of a cat burgular, it silently managed to twine itself about the table leg and inching itself upward until it was amongst the projects, continuing up from behind the unaware mouse.

Tycho was arcing it's mouth open as it was less then a foot away from the mouse when one of the bystanders turned around and saw the reddish-brown salamander sneaking upwards. With a feminine shriek he yelled in alarm, fainting dead away into the arms of Amir. "Lizard!!"

Kanene's head jerked up from the judging/interview she was having with one of the judges at hearing the cry. "Oh no..." she gasped, her head falling down in shame.

Great. If fighting with Jace failed to disqualify him, having a loose animal surely would. Tibby hung his head in shame as he backed away from the lizard.

Pulling herself up into a sitting position, Jace rolled her eyes at the entire situation. "Don't blame tea-boy," she addressed Amir. "He started it, but I kicked his ass anyway. And now that you've got someone to replace the knothole and your hand - " she gestured to the spectator in his arms - "can't you go annoy some of the other contestants?" Jace turned her back on him and wriggled around again. Upon finding that her wheelchair wasn't in the immediate vicinity, she held one arm out to the currently unhappy Theodore. "Help me back into my chair, tea-boy, and I can forget you and Judgie ever happened."

Between the realization the Tibby was male, a passed-out spectator, and the true Tibby trying to save the Mousie, Zaza had shorted out. Too much for her brain to handle. "Wha.. jus.. happened?" She said, whipping her head to the left, then to the right, as if she'd find an explanation somewhere. What she did see, was a lizard. The lizard was right near where Charis had been! Oh no! This must mean -

"Eaaghh!" Zaza wailed, still quiet enough that noone could notice, and picked the small salamander up. "Chaaaris! They turned you into a lizard!" She said in dismay, trying to figure out who could have done something so evil.

Amir gently lay the unfortunate bystander on the ground. Someone else had gone to fetch some water from a waterfountain with a paper cup. In a few moments, he had revived and was sitting up groggily, sipping water and looking thoroughly embarrassed.

Amir had never felt so fed up in his life. The mousie, the salamander - this was turning into a zoo, not a science fair. Why couldn't everyone have submitted projects dealing with computer coding?

The girl who had tried to pry him away from the legless one was now wailing about someone named Charis having been turned into a lizard. "Amphibian," he grumbled, peering at the salamander's feet. "Not a lizard. Amphibian."

He turned to tea-boy, who seemed to be called Tibby. "Do you need a hand helping potty-mouth back in her chair?" he inquired.

"No, he doesn't," squawked Jace, inching away from Amir suspiciously. "And if he says otherwise I'm going to kick him in the nuts."

"With what?" inquired Amir, politely. Straightfaced, he added to Tibby, "Perhaps she might want to stay where she is until she learns her manners. Then again, the building will close before then."

"Ehh..." Tibby said in an attempt to sound intelligent that failed more miserably than a dotcom. He wheeled Jace her wheelchair. "Er, anything else I can do?"

Jace flipped herself up into her wheelchair expertly and gripped the sides. "You can go to hell and die," she said amiably. "I'm gonna go steal the stuff from your project." She began wheeling off, grumbling darkly about times when she COULD kick Amir's ass so hard his bowels would come out his mouth.

"Sure," Tibby agreed, relieved. He looked at the confused Zaza and scooped Charis out from his pocket. "She's not a lizard, see? But I think we have to have a talk here." Placing his free hand firmly on Zaza's shoulder, he took a moment to glance down at the salamander. So it was technically an amphibian, not a lizard. Close enough, he reasoned.

With a surprised little grunt Tycho had been pulled off of the table, his snack having scurried off somewhere. He squirmed his little legs and tried to get out of the grip hold on him and only succeeded in latching himself entirely around the girl's arm. "Keep the hands off!" he started to cry out in protest but then dropped his voice in volume, realising that anyone who heard the animal yell out would start questioning the situation further. There was a familiarity to three of the four people around him, and it remained unknown for a moment until the mouse reappeared. It couldn't possibly be... "Charis?" Tycho whispered softly.

Kanene remained behind, rocking impatiently on her feet - answering the questions that the judge asked her as thoroughly, and briefly, as possible. She had to get her guardian back before she got in trouble for having a non-projected related animal in on the science fair grounds.

"Nenene..." Zaza peered closer at the mouse, and determined it must be Charis. "If thats the mousie.. then whats this?" She said, sticking out her tongue,holding the liz - er, amphibian up by it's tail. Then she glanced back at Tibby, with her mind in deep thought. "Ahh... You must be Tibby then. Charis said you were my friiiend!" She squealed, happy to have finally put everything together.

Instant surprise showed on Charis's tiny face as she stared at the slamander, whiskers quivering. "Y-yes?" she squeaked. Slowly, the crowd began to dissapate, leaving the four to talk without being overheard.

"You know the liz-- amphibian?" Tibby said.

"Ieee! Another special anii-mal!" Zaza squealed, but couldn't help feeling dissapointed that she didn't have a "special" animal.

"You know who I am," Charis cheeped, "but who are you?"

Still being held upside-down by his tail, Tycho was in a painful and akward position. His body rocked side by side like a pendulum as he pawed away, trying to find leverage to right himself up. "It's... me... Tycho!" he uttered between gasps, quickly tiring himself out from his physical exertion, pedalling in the air.

"Excuse me, have you seen an amphibian?" a voice asked over the din, coming from one crowd of spectators. A finger pointed towards the corner of the room and Kanene, after giving her thanks, moved towards the direction gestured to. She cringed at seeing Tycho being scrutinized by two people and picked up her pace until she was beside them. "I'm really sorry, I hope he hasn't caused too much damage," Kanene apologised, lifting up Tycho's front end so he could see forwards without straining his neck.

"They're fellow Astronomia senshi!" he squealed into her ear, trying to be as quiet as possible. Kanene's eyes lighted up in surprise but she didn't say anything.

"Grarara... how come you get a special ani-mal and I don't?" Zaza pouted, shooting a demanding look atCharis and Tibby, as if they could answer. Then without thinking of what was coming out of her mouth, she followed with a haughty, "After all, I'm a Galaxia senshi. Sailor Sextans! I am the best!" Then she crossed her arms, and looked at the ground, pouting because she never got a bunny when she was little, and for some reason she had been begrudged a guardian.

"Eh, you know, I'd be more then perfectly willing to let you have Tycho," Kanene interjected with a grin on her face.

"Hey, don't you dare pass me off to someone else!" Tycho protested.

"Why not? It will just be from one Galaxia senshi to another," Kanene pointed out to her guardian.

With a meaningful look at Kanene, Tibby pointed to the side of the room. "Perhaps we should go where there are less people," he suggested, nudging the group to the emptier area. "Now, getting down to the matter at hand, introductions first. I'm Theodore Parfett, or Horologium Kamen, and this is Timocharis, my guardian."

Tycho had managed to snake his tail out of Zaza's grip and had now assumed a perch on her shoulder, nearly camouflaging into Kanene's hair. "Nice to meet you. This is Tycho, trouble-maker guardian and I'm Kanene Reese with an alter-ego of Sailor Draco."

"Ieee, I'm Zaza!" The purple haired girl squealed, forgetting her angst over having no guardian. "Sailor Sextans.. senshi of.. of.. that thing with funny numbers." She furrowed her brow, trying to remember that word.. it was some class she was failing, but she still couldn't recall it.

Kanene raised an eyebrow expectantly, awaiting a response. Her mouth turned up slightly as if smiling in amusement but her expression remained neutral. "Ah, mathematics perhaps?" Kanene ventured. Surprisingly Tycho remained silent but was deeply pondering why the senshi of physics was reborn into this... chosen one. He shook his head in shame.

"Zaza is the senshi of physics," Timocharis cheeped, squeezing her eyes tight with happiness. "I'm so glad we are all together! And Gawain must be close, too... Maybe we could find him!"

"Find who?" said Tibby, a bit confused.

"If we transform, he might be able to detect our energy!" she continued, oblivious to Tibby. "What do you think, Tycho?"

"Sounds good to me; knowing that three Astronomia senshi are all in this building chances are he must be nearby," Tycho agreed. "It... it feels like old times Charis," he continued, feeling the nostalgia rising amongst the group. "The senshi, all together again *sniff*."

"I guess there's no hard feelings that he tried to eat you," Kanene commented dryly, casting a glance to her left shoulder where Tycho's weight was centred.

"Heh... well, it was a case of mistaken identity," Tycho said, shrinking in size as embarrassment crept over.

"Of course there are no hard feelings," Charis said amiably. "Tibby, why don't you set an example and go first?"

"Just a moment, then," he said, stepping back into an unlit alcove in the wall where chairs were usually stacked and taking out a golden pocketwatch. "Horologium Constellation Power, Suit Up!" The watch glowed golden a moment as pendulums of gold energy swept over Tibby's body. The faint glow ceased, leaving him in a white mask, white shirt and pants, blue vest, and white cape. He glanced about quickly to make sure the coast was clear before leaving the alcove.

"Ieeheehee, would you mind turnin around? Sankyuuu!" Zaza whispered, waiting for Kanene and Tycho to comply before she followed suit, trying to be as quiet as possible - "Sextans Galaxia Power, Maaaaaaake UP!" The alcove was momentarily lit with a soft green light, which left as quickly as it had come, taking the form of equations, then fluttering to the ground slowly. Pausing to tug on her flimsy transparent skirt and blush, Sextans gingerly followed Horologium, the ODF in tow.

With a final glance about Kanene had determined that there was indeed no one in sight to catch them. The two light shows went off and both Kanene and Tycho nodded in approval to their comrades. "I guess it's my turn now. Just hold onto him for a moment," Kanene requested but didn't await a response as she dropped Tycho into Horologium's arms. With a soft cry to not provoke any extra attention she uttered her henshin phrase: "Draco Galaxia Power, Make Up!" A soft hiss was heard momentarily before Kanene's body was entirely cloaked in serpentine scales as her hair fell loose from her clip. Dragon-style wings sprouted from her back, folding in to cover her body. A crimson-purple energy erupted from within the wings and they stretched back and vanished to reveal Sailor Draco.

Unfortunately Kanene's henshin had occured too close to the wall and it was concluded by her discovering her left hand embedded into the wall, with her talons buried in to the hilt. "Oh damn. Can someone help me out here?" Sailor Draco asked, unsuccessfully pulling back to free herself.

"Er," Tibby considered, looking at the situation. "This may not be such a great idea, but... Try not to move."

Pulling his pocket watch out, Tibby shouted as quietly as possible, "Chronic Pendulum Swing!" and threw the watch into the air. It stopped a few feet away from Kanene and a large golden pendulum appeared. The pendulum swung towards the wall, smashing into it. Tibby's control of the attack was perfect: the pendulum disappeared before destroying the whole wall, leaving a large, cracked area just beside Kanene's arm. It took some effort, but Tibby managed to pull the pieces out from the wall, providing Kanene with a hole large enough to remove her arm.

"Are you okay?" he asked, examining Kanene's arm with a look of concern.

The pieces of plaster and cement began crumbling away as Tibby started to pull away at the pieces. Kanene had withdrawn the talons from her free hand and started pulling the pieces away. In a short enough time her hand was free, although her talons were tense and aching, and looking a tad bit crooked.

"It seems like everything is intact," Kanene said, observing her hand. She laughed lightly at the bits of plaster that still clung to her hand. "That was careless of myself. Thank you for your help."

"So, wahsup wif all my new senshi-frieeeeends?" Zaza asked, drawing out the last word. She was incredibly excited to meet some other Astronomia, and hoped they'd be the best of friends! Although she was still worried about those other senshi she had met at the mall... they weren't very nice to her or her fellow Astronomia. "Ah, well.." Zaza said under her breath, trying to take her mind away from that, and focused on her squealing and wild hand motions for now.

Horologium Kamen spent one moment staring dryly at Zaza, then blinked and said, "Shouldn't we be going about now?" in a matter-of-fact voice. From her new perch on his shoulder, Timocharis chirped affirmatively.

"The roof! I'm sure Gawain will find us."

"Very well, then," Horologium said, leading the way to the door and holding it open for the girls.

"Oh, no, you don't!"

Sailor Hephaestos was in the throes of something that could be described as gloating excitement. There were some senshi here, extremely gay-looking ones, and they didn't taste like Graikos in the air. She'd been coming down the corridor, being exceptionally bored, and then - jackpot! From there it was only a short step to transform, and get those hella cool legs, and kick all their butts into tomorrow morning.

The three whipped around in perfect timing and Hephaestos cringed inwardly in afterthought; 'Oh, no, you don't!' sounded completely retarded. She'd have to try harder.

The red-clothed senshi struck a pose, pointing arrogantly at the Astronomia. "I am the soldier of the forge, the keeper of the fires that temper the weapons of my fury, the Graikos senshi Sailor Hephaestos!" She flung her head back, and then added with inspiration: "It's time to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and - damn! I'm all outta gum!"

Now, if that wasn't classy, nothing was.

Amir walked down the hallway, feeling much more pleasant than he did earlier, during that little fiasco with those... children... His judging time had ended, and he'd popped over to the lounge where refreshments had been set up for the judges. Amazing, what a few cookies and some sodas could do to make one forget about brats.

He vowed never to go into teaching.

He rounded a corner and just as rapidly jumped back again. Out of the corner of his eye, he had caught sight of some oddly-dressed people. That part didn't bother him-- perhaps they were doing a living history interpretation along with their science fair project. That would be okay. The problem was that the words "soldier", "senshi", and "Sailor" had caught his ear, and he raised his eyes towards the ceiling tiles.

Don't tell me those are the people Leo was talking about?

He looked around the corner carefully. The two opposing factions-- well, one was an opposing faction of one-- were too busy staring at each other to pay attention to the observer further down the hall.

Tycho had paused at about waist height on Sailordraco in the process of claiming his usual surveying perch when the one intruder announced their presence. However Sailor Draco's senses were ignited, feeling the presence of Sailor Hephaestos before she had loudly arrived as well as the other lurker.

"Bubblegum? Just what are you talking about?" Sailor Draco inquired, casting glances in both directions. Under her breath she whispered to one of her friends that someone else was spying on them. In a few more seconds Draco had spotted him, and was staring him in the eyes.

Extremely fortunately for Amir, the glance was only fleeting, since it wouldn't do for anyone to pay attention other than the extremely volatile Hephaestos. "I'm talking about kicking your ass," the redhead expanded on the topic, putting her hands on her hips and making the dustily shiny fabric floating from her shoulders and wrists flow around her metal calves. "Your scrawny non-Graikos ass!" She pointed to Horologium Kamen and Sextans. "And his scrawny non- Graikos ass, and her scrawny non-Graikos ass - nice roller skates, cream puff," she added.

"Ah, Sankyuu!" Zaza beamed. "I really like 'em tuu, cause they really klonky and cuuuuute! Like once I had this one pair that was super- adorable and... and..." Zaza stopped halfway through her tirade on roller skates, noting the rolling of eyes that was going on. "He- hey. You weren't.. being mean ... were you?" Zaza stuttered, her lower lip quivering and her dark brown eyes filled with tears that threatened to spill over. She continued, turning to Tibby, "Non- Graikos ass? Wasat mean - *sniff* ?"

Sailor Draco had to resist the urge of burying her face in her hand but she did shake her head in a nonbelieving way. 'She's supposed to be the senshi of physics?!' she thought to herself.

"She's referring to the fact that she's going to beating us up and some time soon so we better get moving," Tycho explained, trying to urge the group on.

"Somehow I don't think she's simply going to let us pass, we need a distraction," Draco commented dryly, having recovered somewhat. She had an idea but didn't know if she could entirely trust the others.

Hephaestos tapped one of her clunky metal feet impatiently. "Well? Fighting or no?" she inquired. "I'll put off kicking your butts if you beg a little. Down on knees, classic grovelling? I'm getting impaaaaaatient."

Amir shook his head and rolled his eyes. This person with the funny legs was even more annoying than that girl in the wheelchair earlier. He turned around and backtracked down the hallway the way he had come. But the further away from the commotion he got, the slower his steps became. Leo would be horribly disappointed in him if he just let such an opportunity slide.

I might as well humor the cat, he thought.

He stepped into an empty room; a few seconds later, he popped out again. Like a phonebooth, he thought. With a soft padding noise, Ariel raced back down the hallway to see what had happened in his absence.

Draco cast her gaze aside, scratching the side of her face with her fingers, appearing quite normal for the time being. A grin was starting to pull at her lips, turning upwards and parting to reveal her teeth. "So it's action that you want, isn't it?" she inquired smugly. She sauntered forward, sizing up the senshi infront of her and coming to a halt only a foot away from her. "If you are so intent on it," she said in a low voice, leaning in slightly. She waited a moment to see if the other senshi would do anything but didn't wait for long when she slashed her hand forward, talons springing up suddenly from her fingers and going for the chest to inflict some kind of an injury.

Hephaestos hooted happily and swung back, the claws dragging down the thick metalmaterial that made up her fuku and lightly grazing the flesh of her chest. The light pain was merely added adrenaline.

"Good try, honey," she congratulated Draco, then clenched her right hand by her side where it began to glow a dull, sooty red. "But not good enough! Hephaestos Red-Hot Burst!" Spinning around sharply, she flung a barrage of red-hot shrapnel at her three opponents, sizzling and sharp. Not even waiting to see the effects, she leapt upon Draco, all fists and floating material.

"EEEEK!" Zaza screamed, sheilding herself with Tibby, whom she had been standing behind since Draco attacked the other girl. She was terrified, as she was the first time she had to fight. Clutching onto Tibby's arm, she could see scary things flying straight towards her. Not only that, but the mean girl was lunging at Draco. A split minute decision led her to dash out from behind Tibby, only to be pelted with flaming shrapnel.

"Ouchies.." She whimpered, clutching her arm, and her body started to glow red, sending another, smaller barrage of the same stuff back at Hephaestos. Sextans was too busy crying over her injured arm to notice that odd thing had happened again, she had been attacked and now the attack was mirrored. Darn those Physics.

The flying projectiles had aimed for all of them and Draco certainly caught her own fair share of the barrage. The metal seared through the fabric of her fuku and forming painful welts of burns on her neck and arms. Draco crossed her arms before to protect herself and was caught by surprise as Hephaestos took her out in a flying tackle.

"Get off of me you whacko!" Sailor Draco yelled as she scrimaged against the other senshi. She had several openings in the fight and took the opportunity to send a punch flying and her knee to jolt up into the other girl's gut. Draco heard Tycho calling out words of encouragement from somewhere on the side lines. She raised her eyes upwards and saw the attacked mirrored and sent back to them. "Sextans, watch where you - !" Draco's cry was incomplete as she was burnt again upon impact of the shrapnels.

Hephaestos laughed like a maniac, slightly winded by the sock to the gut. It had been fun whacking it out, but it was time to bring out the big guns... or the big feet, same thing.

Smiling beautifically, Hephaestos straightened herself up... and jumped. Not too high, only two or three inches; but her heavy, clunkymetal feet landed on Draco's. She lost her balance and landed back on her butt, but the damage had already been done; those legs were dangerous. And kickass.

Remind me to learn to walk with these things next time, she made a message to herself, struggling on the ground.

"Aaauh!" Sailor Draco yelled out in pain, accompanied with several colourful curses that were sure to be heard all the way to high heaven. When Hephaestos' feet made contact with the ground once again they had the misfortune to land heavily on Draco's feet, mostly her toes. And goodness, they felt like they had been broken. Tears of pain welled up in her eyes and she had to struggle to keep a strong front. "Alright Chick, I'm making sure you're staying down!"

Standing up was too painful on her injured feet so it didn't take long to decide what she was going to do next. She fell to her knees, catching herself before she could damage her body anymore. Sailor Draco's began pummeling the fallen senshi, not letting up in the slightest.

A pair of slippered feet appeared next to Draco's head. If her view traveled higher up, it would see an Arabian-esque outfit, a tall silver staff, and an inquisitive male face. A pale, green amorphous cloud hovered behind him.

"Having fun?" Ariel asked dryly.

Sailor Draco looked up temporarily, her hands remaining around Sailor Hephaestos' neck although at a relaxed stance. She looked up, fighting back the temptation to blink several times more then necessary. Lightly rubbing her lips together, she shrugged her shoulders a bit. "Do you have something else you would like to suggest? This... intruder decided to just open fire upon us and since no one else seems to be doing anything, I thought it would be mere common sense to at least get her to stop. Why, do you think we should have been dancing the tango instead?"

Feeling Draco's hands relax, Hephaestos shoved her off her, rolling around until she was able to get on her feet - albeit slightly wobbly. Glaring daggers at Ariel, she cocked her fists and drew herself into a fighting stance again. "And who the fuck might you be?" she inquired politely. "Don't you have enough common sense to stay away when someone's beating the shit out of somebody else? I don't have time for this! I have three asses to dispatch!"

Ariel watched her defensive stane bemusedly. "I am Angelus Senshi Ariel," he informed her, not so much an introduction as a statement of fact. He dropped his voice to a more confidential tone. "Look, you guys-- there's already been enough trouble here today, so why don't you take this outside?"

"I suppose you mean the mess we made of the wall?" Horologium suggested, looking rather sheepish. He reached a hand down to Draco, helping her up once her claws were safely retracted, and addressed Ariel once again. "That sounds like a good idea. We were just going to the roof, perhaps that would be a suitable battleground? Oh, and I'm called Horologium Kamen, the Astronomia Senshi of Clocks. Pleased to meet you." Despite the fact they were enemies, Horologium extended at least that small courtesy to Ariel; the Angelus seemed a reasonable enough fellow in Horologium's eyes.

When she realized that butt-kicking was not imminent from anybody, Hephaestos dropped her fists and groaned. "You guys all suck," she informed them heatedly. "We're in the middle of a war here, and you treat it as if it's a sodding tea party." She managed to drop a mock-curtsey, a feat in itself as she'd never done one before. "Whai, dahlings, would you laike some tea? I heah there's a retard over in the west section who did a proooject on some. We could go maike a lark of it." She managed to tinkle a laugh, then she dropped back and looked towards the stairs to the roof in the distance. "Fine. I'll meet you all up on the roof in five minutes, if you're all such freaks that four of you can't take out one right now."

The redhead saluted them and sped off clunkily, her legs making a loud doink, doink, doink noise on the floor.

"Clocks? That's interesting," said Ariel, nodding his approval. "I've got power over wind, water, demons, and healing." He flashed Horologium a smile. "As long as you're more careful on the roof, I suppose it's all right." He could no longer see the clunky-one, but he could certainly hear her noisy metallic feet clanking around in the distance. "But I'd really hate to see some kid's project get squashed, okay?" He divided a frown between those assembled. "But the roof should be okay." With a nod of his head indicating the route the girl had taken, he added, "Is anyone planning on keeping Happyfeet company?"

Draco gave her thanks as she was pulled up by her team mates. As Sextans began skidding about she helped to steady the smaller girl. "Nice to meet you Ariel," she said a bit dryly though not with the intentions to insult him. "I'm Sailor Draco, Astronomia Galaxia Senshi of Spirits. As much as that metal show may be parading her stuff and marauding the whole city, I suppose it should be in our duty to at least make sure she doesn't do anything else disastrous." Draco rubbed a very sore spot on her arm where she was sure a large welt of a bruise would later form upon.

"Mmm," nodded Ariel. He didn't want to admit to these people that he had never met another senshi before. Even if they weren't on his team... it didn't matter. He was curious to see what they could do, and how he compared. "I suppose if we leave her alone up there for too long, she'll come back down here. And who knows what kind of damage that'll cause..."

He rolled his eyes. There seemed to be an abnormal number of bloodthirsty women running around that day. Granted, he'd only seen two-- but two was more than enough.

He came to a decision. "I'm going on up," he informed the others. "Come along if you want; don't if you don't."

Leo will be interested to hear about this, he thought to himself.

A faint green cloud, hardly discernable, hovered over his head as he climbed the stairs that led to the roof.

Sailor Draco shrugged her shoulders and glanced about the hallway, half-tempted to just walk away. She looked back down to Tycho, who was still on the ground and giving her a glare that meant business. With another deep shrug, she stooped down and picked up Tycho. "Well, I suppose we should," Draco said and followed after Ariel.

Ariel reached the roof first. It was a broad, clear area, with some small metal sheds protecting electrical and heating equipment. Some steam curled from a pipe.

::Perhaps this isn't the best place at all:: thought Ariel, feeling slightly disheartened. He had visions of massive power-outages or electrical fires. But he was distracted by Hephaestos' cheerful-as-ever greeting.

"Hi, wanker," Hephaestos announced. "Still as ugly as ever, I see. Where're the other two?" She raised an eyebrow at him and Draco, obviously disgusted by the thought of anybody chickening out of battling with her.

"Gee, I was rather hoping she'd jump off of the roof and kill herself," Tycho grumbled, having assumed a perch on Draco's shoulder as they made their way to the roof.

"Quiet!" Draco ordered through clenched teeth, while desperately hoping that Hephaestos hadn't heard him. She diverted her eyes back to the senshi before them, her face slightly flushed. "I think they're on their way and fact is four against one isn't good odds for you so if you have any common sense you won't do anything stupid."

Just steps behind Draco, Horologium and Sextans entered onto the roofspace, the latter somewhat adjusted to her roller skates, but staying close to Horologium in the event of an accident. Timocharis sat contentedly on Horologium's shoulder, nibbling at what appeared to be a piece of cracker.

"Are we just going to start fighting again or will this be organized? I'd hate to force either of you into a two-on-one," Horologium remarked.

"Hey, sexy-legs," replied Ariel, unruffled. He had never called anyone anything close to 'sexy-legs' before, but he was feeling amazingly good.

With the judge ribbon happily off, and comfortably wearing his 'ensemble' as Leo called it, he didn't have to pretend to be nice. He was still feeling rather disgruntled by the earlier chaos. He would have loved to have socked that irritating girl a good one in the face.

This girl seemed primed for a fight, for some unknown reason. But at least he could maybe use it as an outlet for his own bad mood.

The mere thought of getting to pummel something was enough to brighten his day.

Sextans, grateful for Horologium's help up the stairs (which, in her skates, was impossible for her to attempt on her own.), observed the scene unfolding before her. Confused, and feeling awkward being in the presence of a scary boy who was hitting on a scary girl, she shifted the weight of her giant pizza cutter to her other shoulder. "Thenerve of tha guy!" Sextans angrily said, shaking her fist, oblivious to what most people know as 'sarcasm'.

With smooth strides, Sextans glided inbetween the two, striking the ground with her ODF, making a lovely clanging sound in the process. "You can't just ob... ob..." Zaza furrowed her brow, trying to sound out the word she had heard used before somewhere, perhaps on Blossom (back in the day. ;p). "Ob.. Objectify! You can't just objectify her just cause she's a woman!" Sextans noddded her head, her purple ponytail swinging wildly. Pleased with herself, she seemed to not notice the grimaces of the others, and the fact the girl being 'objectified' had just attacked her earlier.

Hephaestos actually managed to twitter at Ariel. "You heard what she said, darlin'. Stop objectifying me. It's making me blush. Do you say that to all the girls? I should warn you, I'm not inflatable..."

"Is that so?" inquired Ariel, hiding a smile. "Watching you fight earlier reminded me of an inflatable clown punching bag... no matter how many times you got knocked down, you always bounced back up again, smiling." He glanced at Sextans. "How could I objectify such a lovely example of good-natured femininity?"

Draco's eyebrows arched up as Sextan's made her objection to the title that Ariel had given Hephaestos. "Sextans," she said, fighting back several laughs that wound up snickers instead, "I'm sure that you recognise 'Sexy Legs'." She gestured in Hephaetos direction. "And if I were you, I'd suggest moving quickly," she added, not sure what the other senshi would do to the unstable Sextans.

Ariel looked at Sextans, his face overwhelmingly innocent.

"I'm not objectifying anyone. I'm merely stating a fact. Don't tell me you don't think she has nice legs?" he asked, looking aghast at the thought. "You're going to hurt her feelings and make her cry. How cruel of you. Why don't you be nice and tell her that you think she has nice legs, too?" He gestured innocently.

Draco scoffed into her hand while exchanging questioning glances from Sextans, Hephaestos and Ariel. From one fight to another, a physical backlashing within the school and now on the rooftop a verbal assault. Had he said 'Good-natured feminity'? Draco could only shake her head in disgust; he obviously wasn't the one who had been fighting with her because she fought down right dirtily.

Draco stepped aside, backing her way to where Horologium was observing the tirade. "Are you thinking of anything? Because I'm thinking I might be able to sneak up on Hephaestos while she's distracted and could at least get her to be quiet," she said under her breath, leaning in slightly to him so that he could hear.

Sextans coughed, feeling uneasy. "Um, er.." She timidly skated closer to Hephaestos, and cautiously patted her on the shoulder. "Of course not!" She said, her voice a little bit louder as she continued, "I'm sorry. Ieee! let's go have cookies an milk an forget we ever fought!" She squealed, once again seeming to forget this whole 'senshi teams' idea.

Hephaestos rubbed her forehead and groaned. This was even worse than the time that Romanus chick had assaulted them in the bathroom, her first stint as Sailor Hephaestos.

"For the love of a fucking dead trout," she snarled, aggrieved. "This is like an episode of Power Rangers, only you guys are sodding less aggressive. What are you? Carebears or senshi?!"

"Sextans, step aside," Horologium said darkly, narrowing his eyes at Hephaestos from behind his mask. He turned to Draco. "I have a plan. You stay clear. I'll fight this one."

Hephaestos practically beamed. She shook aside Sextans as if she was a ragdoll and stretched lazily for Horologium, thrusting her hips foward perversely for him. "Hey, sugar, you're going to try me out? What a good little boy you are! What's your name, darlin'? S'only polite to tell a lady your name before she beats the shit out of you."

At first, Horologium did not respond. He reached up to his shoulder and removed Timocharis, placing her on the floor. She quickly scampered off. "The name," he said darkly, "is Horologium Kamen, Astra Senshi of Pendulum Clocks."

"Hiiiiiyas!" Hephaestos screeched with a squeal worthy of Sextans. "Hiyas, Ho... How the fuck do you say that again? It sounds like a disease. And clocks? What are you going to do, lube me up with cog oil?"

Seeming unshaken by Hephaestos's antics, Horologium reached into his vest and pulled out a golden pocket watch.

"Oh, you are! What a dinky watch! Can you tell all the big numbers on it?"

"Ladies first," he said, narrowing his eyes from behind his ivory mask.

"Oh perfect," Draco moaned, her voice muffled by her hand as she moaned into it. Between hyper perverted and dirty and a senshi who didn't seem to know anything about what she was doing, it was looking somewhat hopeless. "You better know what you're doing," Draco said quietly, watching the exchange of wits between Horlogium and Hephaestos.

"I agree," Hephaestos nodded seriously. "So you start."

"As you wish," replied Horologium. "Chronic Pendulum SWING!" As he spoke the words, he threw his watch into the air. It froze just above Hephaestos's head and, suddenly, a huge pendulum appeared, swinging towards the hapless Graikos.

Hephaestos was ready for this. She stood her ground, sure that she could block the swinging pendulum with her heavy metal legs, smirking at that masked pansy even now -

The pendulum hit her legs like an oncoming truck and flung her backwards, over the edge, the shock making her flail in agony - she grasped out wildly, feeling the cold concrete edge of the roof under her rough metalmaterial gloves, clinging tight; she moved her other hand up to steady herself, trying to scrabble back up. Her legs were too heavy! She was too used to being a lightweight. The redhead looked down and winced.

Three stories up.

She never could bear heights.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck," she intoned. "I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" she bellowed, beginning to panic. "I'm gonna poke out your eyes and skullfuck you with a broom! I'm gonna... gonna..." She kicked out, making bits of the concrete wall crumble and fall to the bottom of the building.

Horologium never smiled, never blinked, just closed his eyes and put his hands together, staring to clap in a slow, methodical manner. "Tick tock, Chiming Clock." An insidious ticking sound began, first quiet, then growing in magnitude. Horologium took seven paces forward, his eyes still closed, his hands still clapping, and the ticking increased. It grew to an almost unbearable level, forcing all those within twenty feet to wince in auditory pain.

Yet whatever the others heard, the sound was far worse to Sailor Hephaestos. Horologium stood a mere seven feet from her, never once missing a beat in his slow clapping.

Hephaestos squinched her eyes together, then tried to block her ears with her shoulders. "Sweet Jeeesus," she moaned. God, it was loud! It was ringing in her ears like a tank shot fired right next to her, making her teeth chatter. In a desperate attempt to make it stop, she took one hand from the edge and mashed her fist into her ear, dangling.

"Make it stooop," she whimpered. The sound just got louder and louder...

... and louder, and louder AND LOUDER...

Finally, with an anguished scream, Hephaestos took her other hand and clapped it to her other ear... which left no hands on the edge, and thusly, nothing holding her up...

Biting off her screams, the red-and-grey senshi plummeted down three stories and landed with a thump amidst some trees and thick scrub.

There was a sort of shocked silence. Horologium stopped clapping and opened his eyes, turning to face the others. "Well, shall we be moving on to the next bit of business, then?"

Draco's eye was still flinching in time to the beat of the clock that had been going while Tycho had his head pretty much buried under her vest, as well trying to block out the noise. "HAS THAT STOPPED YET!??" Tycho yelled, all too loudly for Draco as his head end was in towards her neck.

"Geez, you've got one set of pipes! Yes, it's over," Draco said, her right ear suffering a more painful fate then her left. She advanced over to the edge, stepping up onto it and looking down to the shrubs were a squirrel was running about squeaking in laughter around the currently motionless form of Hephaestos. "That was remarkably easy," Draco commented, surveying the fallen senshi.

Sextans had skidded backwards and plonked down after Hephaestos shoved her to the side. Now frantic, she crawled over to the side of the building, seeing as it was hard to skate with all this rubble here and there. Peering over, she saw the senshi *had* in fact fell off the roof. While Draco and Horologium exchanged a few words, Sextans sniffled as she looked on. "That was not very nice." She dragged the ODF across the roof with a clickety-clack sound, and proceeded to lean it against her shoulder as she sat. ::sniff:: "Are you going to throw him off the roof too?" She said, with a twinge of anger in her voice as she gestured to Ariel.

"If it's necessary," replied Horologium. He fixed Ariel with a level glare. "Is it?"

Ariel raised an eyebrow. Horologium had seemed to be one of the more stable ones of the group. Still-- he glanced the younger boy up and down-- he wasn't about to bow and scrape in front of some kid.

So he merely shrugged. "If you feel you have a reason, by all means, go on and try. But I wouldn't recommend it."

The faint green cloud still hovering unobtrusively over his head, Ariel gazed levelly at the younger boy.

"Actually," Horologium mumbled, taking note of the time, "I'd much rather we just called it a day. It's tea-time, you know."

"Horologium Kamen!" squealed a tiny voice from the ground. Horologium stooped down to retrieve Timocharis. "How can you be worried about tea at a time like this?" she admonished.

"What ever do you mean, Charis? It's the perfect time to be worrying about tea." As if proving his statement, Horologium dangled his pocket watch in front of the mouse. "If we don't get moving soon I'll be late." The poor mouse, embarassed, just squealed and hid her head.

Draco's mind registered the little comment from Horologium a little too slowly, and she wound up turning to send a questioning gaze in his direction. "Pardon me but did you say 'Tea Time?'" she inquired dubiously.

"We've certainly got an odd slew of characters in this team," Tycho commented dryly. He attempted an apologetic glance to Charis but it wound up being somewhat amused at the little mouse's suffering.

"I'll say," Draco agreed. She looked back to Sextan's who still appeared to be heart broken. "Sextans, we really couldn't avoid the situation unfortunately but I will tell you this. There are some underlying motives that has driven us into teams and I'm going to uncover them, so none of us are no longer considered enemies."

Sextans lifted herself up from the ground, sniffling a little as she listened to what Draco said. "Really?" Her eyes glazed over. "Yeee! Then we can all be friends!" She did a little dance, then smoothly skated away from the ledge. "Wai! Now we can all go have tea!" She squealed, then her gaze fell to the glowering Ariel. "Can he come to tea too, Mr. Horologium Knight sir?" She pleaded, a bit more apprehensive in the way she addressed him, having seen what he was capable of.

Horologium took a minute to consider this, then shook his head. "Um, I'd have to say no to that idea, Sextans. It was nice meeting you, Ariel, perhaps some other time!" As if emphasizing how late he was, Horologium dangled his pocket watch and began inching towards the doorway. "Oh, and you can come too, if you like," he offered as he passed Sextans.

"HOROLOGIUM KAMEN!" Timocharis squealed, looking to Draco and Tycho for help in keeping her ward on the rooftop until the next battle had commenced.

Ariel hid a small smile. "If you'll excuse me, I took my tea early today," he explained to Sextans. He cast one more glance down into the shrubbery, three stories beneath them, and turned to Horologium. "Nice shot," he said appraisingly. "Perhaps someday, I'll show you what I can do... but not today."

He exited down the stairs, whistling softly to himself.

"What do you want us to do Charis, steal his cream and sugar?" Tycho asked, throwing his voice so that it would keep up with the mouse as her student continued to make his leave.

"Besides, to have another battle we rather need an opponent," Draco pointed out. And true to that fact, Ariel had disappeared while the three of them had been talking amongst themselves.

"Tea then!" exclaimed Horologium. He took a quick look around to make sure Ariel was completely gone, then concntrated a moment and returned to his civilian form. He seemed rather pleased with himself as he pushed his glasses up a notch on his nose.

"That was it then?" Tycho inquired, incredulous by the short duration of it all. "That was the fight? There should have been something more, or it should have gone longer!"

"Oh, hush it up hot-head," Sailor Draco said, casting a scornful glare down at Tycho as he worked himself into a miniature frenzy. "It was perfectly fine as it is but if you don't calm down I'm sure Horologium has some relaxant tea for you to drink." Her voice was sarcastic, almost to the point of demeaning. She glanced back up to where Horologium had been standing to see him having detransformed.

With a roll of her eyes, she cleared her mind and concentrated to return back to her clothes that she had been wearing. "So Tibby, are you actually serious about this tea party thing? I'm starting to get a little insulted since you did invite Zaza but not me." The sarcasm was gone but still whether she was hurt or not was undecided.

Sailor Draco studied her two mates, her eyes snapping back and forth between, getting annoyed with the lengthening silence that they were in. "Geez, is this a tableau or does anyone know how to talk?" she spat out, her annoyance finally becoming known to everyone else.

"The talk is about tea - and I don't care much for the drink so I want to leave," Tycho announced, his mouth opening slightly in his own odd little way of yawning. "Get back into my sauna of a tank."

"Of course master, I am only your servant," Sailor Draco replied cynically, wrinkling her nose up slightly. "It's been an absolute pleasure meeting you two but I must bow out of any so called victory celebrations, whether it involves a little tea time or not." In a flurry of cascading energy flowing away from her the fuku vanished, revealing Kanene wearing the clothes that she wore before hand. "See you next time if any but don't count on me to make the phone call." Kanene started off back to the door that led back inside.

Amir lay on his back, staring at his ceiling. "There were four of them," he explained to Leo. He counted on his fingers. "I believe one of them was called a Graikos... three of them were Astronomia. Small assortment of animals, too."

Leo lashed his tail from side to side as he paced up and down the room. "And you didn't blow them all into bits?" he asked irately.

"What for?" Amir asked lazily. "The clock-guy... Horo... Horologium... took care of Iron-legs, and she was the only one I really wanted to fix." He scowled. "It wouldn't have been very fair to try anything on rollerskate girl... and claw-girl seemed pretty distant and suspicious, but she wasn't rude, like Iron-legs was."

"Hmm. Still. If you don't take care of them now, they'll come back to haunt you in the future," said Leo.

Jace came to a little while after. She was back in her normal form, her wheelchair lying on it's side beside her; she appeared to be embroiled in some sort of foliage.

Immediately she tried to move, but there was a painful ache down her spine. No moving just yet.

Damn! She'd lost!

She didn't like losing. Losing was wrong. Damnit, she would've won it if it hadn't been for that sodding Horologium and his mouse -

That other guy had had a mouse, too. The one with the tea project.

Two men. Two mice.

Jace came to a startling conclusion.

Too many fuckers had fucking mice!

Next time, she resolved. Next time, she'd get that Horologium, and she'd sever his tendons, strip him nude and hang him from the traffic lights on a main road!

"I'll get you, my pretties," she cackled beneath her breath.

Then she tried out her evil laugh, but it just caused her back muscles to spasm. "Ah. Hell. Later."

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