Senshi Academy of Zephyrus Prime
Chapter two
Recovering from the First Battle
Disclaimer: The concept of Sailor Moon and Sailor Senshi is copyright Takeuchi Naoko and whomever else holds the copyright. The new characters are copyright, so to speak, Erin-hime (me). I'm not making any money off of this, as you generally know.
Three dark figures appeared in a dark flash in a dark room. Two were standing as if injured, the third, if one could see her face, looking annoyed. The two injured ones walked over to a computer station, limping, and turned the giant screen on.
The computer screen flickered to life, bathing the three dark figured in an artificial light. The uninjured one was fixing her hair, and gave an annoyed snort at the sudden brightness. A blue girl standing next to her commander was pulling bandages and other medical items out of a drawer next to the compute station. The raven-haired senshi simply stared at the screen, waiting for her selection to appear.
"Well, that was a total waste of time." The blue one finished tending to her wounds, and made a move to start on her commander's, but she held a hand up to stop her.
"Not exactly, Eris. Our first few attempts are observational ones, gauging their powers, and figuring out who would be best suited to defeat them. Now then, those knights are powerful, yet foolish, so they will be easy. Draco is also powerful, but only if she is angry, so we mustn't do anything to make her mad. She should also be one of the firsts we take out. The other one didn't get a chance to use her powers, so we don't know how to handle her."
"Of course, Nemesis, we know who the blame for that problem, now don't we." Nemesis grew red in anger and turned to face her accuser.
"At least I do things to help the Dark Coalition, unlike some people, Discordia."
"Tut, tut, we can't still have a grudge about that, now do we?"
Eris shook her head. "You know as well as the rest of us she's the senshi of revenge. She'll always hold that grudge." At this point, the blue senshi had all but strapped Nemesis down to help 'heal' her. Nemesis was putting up a good fight, but gave in at the end.
Staring up at Eris as she applied some cream to her metal burns, Nemesis smirked. "I just hate to see Lord Berserk's face when you tell him what happened, Discordia."
~~~~@
Erin paced silently in her room. Professor Madison, after hearing about the attack, had sent the students to their rooms while they investigated the site. Both Patrick and Tallis were in the infirmary, and she herself was discharged when the nurses could only find bruises on her neck.
Jenna was watching Erin worried. Erin couldn't blame, her, she would be worried if her twin brother was injured as well. She had tried to talk to Jenna, but it seemed as if the older girl blamed Erin for what happened to Patrick. Erin sighed, and continued pacing.
Eurus jumped from the bed and started rubbing Erin's leg and purring. Erin smiled at Eurus' attempted to comfort her, but it didn't work. So the guardian started pacing with her.
What were those Dark Senshi doing? Clearly, they weren't seriously attacking, because then four inexperience's senshi shouldn't have defeated them. Terra would argue that they were ready, but Erin knew otherwise. Dark Senshi were generally more cunning then that, too. It was as if they wanted her and her friends to win, and that just didn't make any sense to Erin. In all the history lessons involving Light Senshi and Dark Senshi, not one did the Dark Senshi 'let' the Light Senshi win.
"Gah, ok, will you stop pacing now?" Erin looked over at Jenna, who had her head in a pillow. "That look on your face is giving me a headache!"
Erin smiled, the first real one in about an hour. "I'm sorry." She stopped and picked up Eurus before sitting on her own bed. "I'm just thinking about something I don't understand."
"You head how you and everyone got away unscathed sorta?"
Erin gave her a lopsided grin. "Yeah."
"Mousie, sometimes you just shouldn't reflect on those kinds of things. One superstition is that if you do, you'll lose you senshi powers." She paused. "Which is what Lapis used to do...all the time. Now I think I get it."
Erin giggled. "It's hard not to think about it. There's nothing else to do."
"True, which is why I learned how to scale down the building."
Erin blinked. "You can fit through the window?" Erin glanced at the tiny window, which she couldn't probably fit through, and gave Jenna a doubtful look.
"Yea, just watch me?" Erin stood shocked as Jenna carefully lifted the window, the whole thing, out of it's casing, then slide out of it.
"Woah." Erin quickly followed her roommate, wanting some adventure. Sitting and waiting while a friend was injured was no one's favorite pastime.
They reached the second floor with difficultly on Erin's part, and slid into a vacant room's window. Apparently they only put the window n its case when someone was in the room.
"Follow me." Jenna led Erin out of the room, and stealthily down the all until they came to a foyer. From there, it was easy to find the infirmary, as place Erin, thankfully, had never been before.
The infirmary was set aside from the other rooms in the building. It stood, pristine and pure, in the middle of a wide hallway, looking ominous. Not many people were milling about here, not even professors. Erin was sure this place was off limits to students without reason, and even she was awed by the room. Despite the fact that she knew that the walking around was against the rules during this time, she herself felt drawn towards the room, intrigued by what it held within it's doors.
The doors were the automatic kind, and gave a slight swoosh as they stepped into the infirmary. There were a few other students in there, mostly from small sicknesses and bumped knees. Most of the students that were sent here didn't need major care, except for the few that managed to get themselves severely injured during training. Those students now were in a separate section, some asleep, and some just sitting there, staring, and bored out of their minds.
Patrick and Tallis were in a separate part as well. It seemed unused expect for what was needed for Patrick and Tallis, and Erin only could guess that this space was used for students that were injured in battle. She wasn't quite sure if it was used in the past, but, either way, it hadn't been used in quite awhile.
Patrick was actually up at this point, looking around, confused. Tallis was still out, but it looked like he had moved from unconsciousness to simply asleep by the soft breathing he was giving out. Patrick looked over at his sister and Erin, gave a small wave, and coughed as he tried to greet them.
Jenna rushed to her brother. "Baka! You shouldn't try to talk yet!" Patrick shrugged.
Feeling slightly out of place, Erin moved her gaze from the siblings to Tallis. He looked so peaceful sleeping that Erin didn't really want to disturb him. Slowly, she shifted her stance until she decided to sit in the chair next to his bed. Jenna was fusing with Patrick, so neither of them saw her do this.
Erin really didn't know what to do. Two of her friends, although she didn't want to admit it, were injured, and she never had to deal with anything like that before. She felt useless. In fact, she was being to wonder why she agreed to come in the first place. Sure, she was restless, but there wasn't much to do with both of them feeling fine now.
"It's tough, isn't it?" Erin turned around to find Headmistress Madison standing behind her. She held a somewhat sad expression on her face, but she didn't seem mad.
"Yes, I'm not quite sure what I can do to help them."
Madison pulled up a chair next to Erin. "And you never fully will. When the first member of my senshi team got injured, none of us knew what they could do to help their situation. Actually, she was able to recover without any help, but we all still felt bad about it. As time grew on, and more and more of them got injured in battle, we came to accept that they would do fine on their own, but I always had the sense of helplessness, that I should be doing /i to help them. that feeling never fully goes away."
Erin looked from her headmistress to Tallis. "It's just that...well, in that battle, I was too incapacitated to do anything as they were hit. I feel like I should have done something to have stopped that, but I couldn't. I feel like it's my fault they got hurt, and my responsibility to make sure they get better."
"Sometimes that happens. There isn't anything you can do to protect everyone, Negumi, and sometimes they get hurt, That doesn't make it your fault, or your responsibility."
Erin just continued staring at Tallis. He wasn't doing much. After a short period of hearing Jenna trying to get Patrick to lie down, Erin finally spoke. "Do you really think we're ready to face this new enemy, Professor."
She placed a hand on the girl's shoulder. "No, I don't, but that's why your here. You'll know when you are really ready, and then you will go out and truly fight them." She stood up and Tallis gave a small cough.
As Madison left unnoticed by any of her students, Tallis opened on ice blue eye. He tried to say something, but, like Patrick, was too weak to do so. Erin gave him a crocked grin. "Good morning."
He placed a hand to his throat. Unlike Patrick, who was merely hit in the chest with the attack, Tallis was hit in the throat, where a very nasty looking bruise was starting to form. He gave Erin a questioning gaze.
"Do you remember what happened?" Tallis gave a slow nod. "Well, that dark senshi hit you with her attack, and knocked you out. It looks like she hit your neck, so I'm thinking you may have trouble speaking for a little while. Don't worry, Patrick has to same problem, although I'm not sure why. It's an improvement though." She ducked as a pillow was thrown at her. She gave an almost genuine smile at that.
"I'm sorry if you don't like my talking." He croaked. Jenna then smacked him, and started to make him lie down again.
Erin sighed. "Lay off him, Jenna. He obviously doesn't want to listen to you, like always, so he isn't going to simply take this lying down. You know that."
"Yeah, but it makes me feel better to force him to do stuff."
The other three just looked at her like she was crazy.
~~~~@
Terra sat across from Angelica, staring at the blue alien girl. The professors had finally allowed them back to class, and it was training for them. Terra, Angelica, Melody, and Jake were in class together, while the others had another class. They were missing a certain male, but they weren't holding it against him today. However, the professor hadn't shown up yet, so all the class could do was sit on the mats, and stare at each other.
"I wish you'd quit looking at me like that." Terra blinked out of her thoughts.
"Sorry, lass. I was thinking."
Angelica smiled, her pearly white flashing against blue skin. "That's a first."
Terra chucked a training ball at her. "I was jus' wondering what exactly caused us not to have class this mornin'."
"Oh yeah, that. I'm not quite sure, and I don't think the professors want to tell us anytime soon."
"True, but /i had to have been there, lass, and I plan to find out who, an' get all the juicy details out of them." The professor walked in just then.
All that meant was now they were able to fight. The professor's job was to make sure no one got killed, and to drag injured students out of the room. Melody, across the room, had to pair up with another student whose usual partner was skipping.
"Humus Earth Power, Make-up!"
"Helios Sun Power, Make-up!" In a flash of green and gold, they were transformed.
Actually, it looked like a light show in the room as everyone powered up. The first time they had seen that in their first year, they had all been awed. Now, it had lost its appeal.
"Ok class, hand to hand combat first, and use your powers today only if you fine yourself in trouble."
Helios and Humus starting circling each other. "So, who do you think was in the attack yesterday?"
Humus looked for an opening. "I'm not quite sure. I figured it's ask around to see if anyon' knew someone."
Helios jumped at Humus, and the jade green haired senshi flipped her as she came near. Angelica hit the floor, and had the wind knocked out of her. "Well....maybe...Jake...knows...something."
"What makes you say that?" Humus reached over and helped Helios up so they could have another go.
"Because he isn't here. You know he wouldn't skip a class for no reason at all. So either Pat or Tallis was in the battle. See, we already know someone."
Humus rolled her eyes at Helios. "Like they would be willing to tell us what happened. Especially if one of their 'men' got injured. Well, Tallis might, as long as Pat isn't there to poke him in the ribs to keep him quite."
Helios ran up to Humus, and head butted her, which caught the older girl off guard. On the floor now, holding her stomach, she just looked shocked. "Did you have to hit so hard there?"
"It's practice, Terra. If I don't practice it hard now, then I'll go to easy on our enemies."
Humus stood up slowly, watching the red spot grow. "Remind me never to fight with you again, then."
Helios smiled. No one had been able to hurt Humus before. She was a sore loser when it did happen, it seemed, but Helios couldn't help by simply smile as Humus limped off, barely able to stand up straight.
Draco was also injured, not being one for hand to hand combat like her partner was. Usually, when paired with Jake, she would do ok, because, well, Jake would go slightly easy on her, and give her hints as to where to hit him. There were a few times when she had to blush when he told her, but other than that, she'd be able to at least hit him.
Humus could barely sit down, but managed to do so anyway. Draco was rubbing her arm, where a nasty whelp was forming. She also had what looked like the beginning of a black eye. "What's wrong with you?"
"I can't barely breathe, lass. Gotta problem wi' that?"
Draco shook her head, and watched as Helios and her 'partner' for the day paired up. Humus glanced over at Draco. "So...what doya think o' that battle last night?"
Draco did the same thing to Humus. "I really don't want to talk about it, Terra."
"Oh, why not?"
"Are you just looking for someone who was there, because, if you are, then you can stop looking."
Humus was about to respond before thinking about what Draco said. They sat in silence for a few minutes. "So, doya know why Jake ain't here?"
Draco sighed. "Both Pat and Tallis were knocked unconscious in the fight."
Humus gave an exaggerated oh. "Any one else hurt that should know about?"
Draco glanced over at Humus again. "Erin was thrown against the wall, and couldn't breathe for a short bit there, but, as you know Erin, she's probably the only one who could have the done to her and walk away perfectly fine."
Humus turned sharply on Draco. "An' you weren't plann' on telling me me best friend was injured?"
"I figured she would tell her herself!"
Humus sighed. "Well, I can imagine she's beating herself up pretty good right now."
Draco shrugged. "I wouldn't know. I haven't see n her all day."
Humus nodded, and stood up, making groaning sounds. The professor looked up at her. "Miss Fitz, what are you doing?"
"I think I was more injured then I thought, Professo'. May I go to the infirmary to get it checked out?"
Luckily, the red mark on her stomach looked bad enough to the professor didn't hesitant to send her out. Smirking, she headed down to the library, knowing that's where she could find her friend.
Sure enough, there was the red headed girl, staring at a book, but not actually looking at it. Humus, now in civilian form, pulled up a chair next to Erin. "Wanna talk about it?"
Erin glanced up at Terra. "Are you skipping training?"
Terra smirked again. "I hav' an 'injury'."
"You?" Terra pulled up her uniform shirt to show Erin the mark. "Ouch! Who did that?"
"Angelica and her hard head? Now, you wanna talk about it?"
Erin shook her head. "It's not really that, actually," she was merely guessing that Terra pulled the information from Melody, "it's something that Professor Madison told me."
"Hai?"
Erin slumped back into the position she was in before Terra came in. "Well, she told me there would be nothing I can do to help any of you if you go injured while fighting. That you'll recover by yourself and such, and that it'll never get easier."
Terra placed a hand on Erin shoulder. "You don't need to worry 'bout that, Erin. Yes, we may get injured, and it'll never be your fault, but, at some point or another, one of us will get so injured that the only thing that'll help us would be the fact that we would know someone needs us to be ok. While that may be a horrible experience to go through, at least you'll know you're helping. I mean, what happened when you went to infirmary, like I'm sure you did?"
"Well, Tallis was still unconscious, but he woke up."
Terra gave a slow nodded, as if understanding something for the first time. "Why did he do that?"
"I don't know. I was talking to Professor Madison, and she left, and he woke up."
"It's probably because he heard your voice, and wanted to see you."
Erin gave a slow smile, which faded. "Yeah, but he got injured on his throat, and won't be able to talk for awhile. And I'm..."
"It's not your fault, Negumi. You didn't shove him in the way of any sort of attack that could have done that. He most likely knew the risks of fighting before he even transformed, so never blame yourself for that."
"I just wish I could have don't more."
Terra lifted Erin's face up until green eyes met with teary brown ones. "You can't be doing everything at once, lass. Sometime you have to let people do only what they can, and that's one of the tasks of being an effective leader."
"But what if I can' be the leader everyone tells me I am?"
"You're worrying about Tallis, that's should be proof enough."
Erin sniffed, and then looked at Terra again. "Thanks."
~~~~@
The day went by, and soon it was time for dinner. Dinner was in a different place then lunch, as it was a meal that everyone had at the same time. Erin liked the dinning room this year, because it was more elegant than the lower classes dinning room. Each class had their own room, since they couldn't fit that many people in the small space. The tables were set up parallel to each wall, with a void space in the middle. The professors all sat at the table farthest from the doors, so they could walk students walk in and out.
Erin was waiting for her friends casually by the door. She knew it wasn't the most wise thing to do, seeing as she usually misses them. Sunny was already in the dinning room, saving some spaces. Someone was always the designated seat, because there were so many students that it would be difficult to find seats together otherwise.
So Erin was standing at the door when the mad rush came in. She hated when her friends came through the mad rush, because she can never spot them. Sometimes they come in early, and they were able to grab their seats before the rush comes in, then there are times when Terra holds them up. Erin thought she saw a flash of jade green hair walk by her, and , as she turned around to see if she had, she was suddenly swept up on the crowd.
This usually didn't happen to her, and she felt closed in with all the people looking for their friends. As she reached the west side of the room, a hand suddenly reached out and grabbed her, shoving her into a chair. She was about the protest before she saw she was seated next to Patrick and Tallis.
Erin blinked, and gave them an odd look. At this point, everyone had been seated. It didn't take long once everyone was inside. She spotted Terra and the others on the other side of the room, who gave a small wave at her. Things quieted down to the point where they could have a conversation.
Erin glanced down at her plate, which was empty. She then slid a sideways glance at Patrick.
"What?"
"Is there a reason you dragged me into this seat?"
Patrick looked sheepish. "Not really. It just looked like you were going to have some problems getting over there. Besides, we needed someone to replace Jake."
Erin glanced over to the other side again, and spotted Jake sitting next to a blushing Sunny. She gave a small smile. At least one of them was getting wanted attention. "What about Jenna?"
Patrick pointed her out with her own group of friends. "She never sits with me anymore. I wonder why."
Tallis placed a hand over his mouth to show he was laughing. "How are you feeling, Tallis?"
He shrugged. Erin guessed his voice box still hadn't recovered yet. "It's cool. I just wish Mr. Motor Mouth was the one who got injured severely, not you." She gave Patrick a sideways evil look, one that he didn't register.
"Shh, here comes Professor Madison." And then he started randomly piling food onto her own plate. Erin gave him an odd look.
The room become quiet as Professor Madison made her way to the head table. Once she reached her spot in the middle of the table, she paused a moment to study her students before picking up her glass and gently tapping her fork against it. Which proved to be unnecessary, for the room was dead quiet by the time she reached her seat.
"As you may all be well aware of, a few of our students yesterday were attacked by some unknown senshi. While we still haven't figured out the nature or motive of these new senshi, they still pose a threat to this establishment, and thus pose a threat to each and everyone one of you, experienced as you may think you are. As a result, we are forced to take some kind of measure. Until we learn more about these 'Dark Senshi', each of you is required to be with a buddy at all times. No matter what, if we catch you wondering around the halls by yourself, you will be punished for it. That is all, for now."
The room remained quiet a few moments after Professor Madison made her speech before erupted in noise the students asked each other what this could mean.
~~~~@
"Discordia! Get in here!" Nemesis impatiently tapped her foot, waiting for her underling to enter her command center. She took her time, and entered with an almost flowing step.
"Yes Nemesis?"
"Are we prepared for the next attack?"
Discordia grinned an evil grin upon hearing this. "Yes, revengeful one, all is ready for your command."
Disclaimer: The concept of Sailor Moon and Sailor Senshi is copyright Takeuchi Naoko and whomever else holds the copyright. The new characters are copyright, so to speak, Erin-hime (me). I'm not making any money off of this, as you generally know.
Three dark figures appeared in a dark flash in a dark room. Two were standing as if injured, the third, if one could see her face, looking annoyed. The two injured ones walked over to a computer station, limping, and turned the giant screen on.
The computer screen flickered to life, bathing the three dark figured in an artificial light. The uninjured one was fixing her hair, and gave an annoyed snort at the sudden brightness. A blue girl standing next to her commander was pulling bandages and other medical items out of a drawer next to the compute station. The raven-haired senshi simply stared at the screen, waiting for her selection to appear.
"Well, that was a total waste of time." The blue one finished tending to her wounds, and made a move to start on her commander's, but she held a hand up to stop her.
"Not exactly, Eris. Our first few attempts are observational ones, gauging their powers, and figuring out who would be best suited to defeat them. Now then, those knights are powerful, yet foolish, so they will be easy. Draco is also powerful, but only if she is angry, so we mustn't do anything to make her mad. She should also be one of the firsts we take out. The other one didn't get a chance to use her powers, so we don't know how to handle her."
"Of course, Nemesis, we know who the blame for that problem, now don't we." Nemesis grew red in anger and turned to face her accuser.
"At least I do things to help the Dark Coalition, unlike some people, Discordia."
"Tut, tut, we can't still have a grudge about that, now do we?"
Eris shook her head. "You know as well as the rest of us she's the senshi of revenge. She'll always hold that grudge." At this point, the blue senshi had all but strapped Nemesis down to help 'heal' her. Nemesis was putting up a good fight, but gave in at the end.
Staring up at Eris as she applied some cream to her metal burns, Nemesis smirked. "I just hate to see Lord Berserk's face when you tell him what happened, Discordia."
~~~~@
Erin paced silently in her room. Professor Madison, after hearing about the attack, had sent the students to their rooms while they investigated the site. Both Patrick and Tallis were in the infirmary, and she herself was discharged when the nurses could only find bruises on her neck.
Jenna was watching Erin worried. Erin couldn't blame, her, she would be worried if her twin brother was injured as well. She had tried to talk to Jenna, but it seemed as if the older girl blamed Erin for what happened to Patrick. Erin sighed, and continued pacing.
Eurus jumped from the bed and started rubbing Erin's leg and purring. Erin smiled at Eurus' attempted to comfort her, but it didn't work. So the guardian started pacing with her.
What were those Dark Senshi doing? Clearly, they weren't seriously attacking, because then four inexperience's senshi shouldn't have defeated them. Terra would argue that they were ready, but Erin knew otherwise. Dark Senshi were generally more cunning then that, too. It was as if they wanted her and her friends to win, and that just didn't make any sense to Erin. In all the history lessons involving Light Senshi and Dark Senshi, not one did the Dark Senshi 'let' the Light Senshi win.
"Gah, ok, will you stop pacing now?" Erin looked over at Jenna, who had her head in a pillow. "That look on your face is giving me a headache!"
Erin smiled, the first real one in about an hour. "I'm sorry." She stopped and picked up Eurus before sitting on her own bed. "I'm just thinking about something I don't understand."
"You head how you and everyone got away unscathed sorta?"
Erin gave her a lopsided grin. "Yeah."
"Mousie, sometimes you just shouldn't reflect on those kinds of things. One superstition is that if you do, you'll lose you senshi powers." She paused. "Which is what Lapis used to do...all the time. Now I think I get it."
Erin giggled. "It's hard not to think about it. There's nothing else to do."
"True, which is why I learned how to scale down the building."
Erin blinked. "You can fit through the window?" Erin glanced at the tiny window, which she couldn't probably fit through, and gave Jenna a doubtful look.
"Yea, just watch me?" Erin stood shocked as Jenna carefully lifted the window, the whole thing, out of it's casing, then slide out of it.
"Woah." Erin quickly followed her roommate, wanting some adventure. Sitting and waiting while a friend was injured was no one's favorite pastime.
They reached the second floor with difficultly on Erin's part, and slid into a vacant room's window. Apparently they only put the window n its case when someone was in the room.
"Follow me." Jenna led Erin out of the room, and stealthily down the all until they came to a foyer. From there, it was easy to find the infirmary, as place Erin, thankfully, had never been before.
The infirmary was set aside from the other rooms in the building. It stood, pristine and pure, in the middle of a wide hallway, looking ominous. Not many people were milling about here, not even professors. Erin was sure this place was off limits to students without reason, and even she was awed by the room. Despite the fact that she knew that the walking around was against the rules during this time, she herself felt drawn towards the room, intrigued by what it held within it's doors.
The doors were the automatic kind, and gave a slight swoosh as they stepped into the infirmary. There were a few other students in there, mostly from small sicknesses and bumped knees. Most of the students that were sent here didn't need major care, except for the few that managed to get themselves severely injured during training. Those students now were in a separate section, some asleep, and some just sitting there, staring, and bored out of their minds.
Patrick and Tallis were in a separate part as well. It seemed unused expect for what was needed for Patrick and Tallis, and Erin only could guess that this space was used for students that were injured in battle. She wasn't quite sure if it was used in the past, but, either way, it hadn't been used in quite awhile.
Patrick was actually up at this point, looking around, confused. Tallis was still out, but it looked like he had moved from unconsciousness to simply asleep by the soft breathing he was giving out. Patrick looked over at his sister and Erin, gave a small wave, and coughed as he tried to greet them.
Jenna rushed to her brother. "Baka! You shouldn't try to talk yet!" Patrick shrugged.
Feeling slightly out of place, Erin moved her gaze from the siblings to Tallis. He looked so peaceful sleeping that Erin didn't really want to disturb him. Slowly, she shifted her stance until she decided to sit in the chair next to his bed. Jenna was fusing with Patrick, so neither of them saw her do this.
Erin really didn't know what to do. Two of her friends, although she didn't want to admit it, were injured, and she never had to deal with anything like that before. She felt useless. In fact, she was being to wonder why she agreed to come in the first place. Sure, she was restless, but there wasn't much to do with both of them feeling fine now.
"It's tough, isn't it?" Erin turned around to find Headmistress Madison standing behind her. She held a somewhat sad expression on her face, but she didn't seem mad.
"Yes, I'm not quite sure what I can do to help them."
Madison pulled up a chair next to Erin. "And you never fully will. When the first member of my senshi team got injured, none of us knew what they could do to help their situation. Actually, she was able to recover without any help, but we all still felt bad about it. As time grew on, and more and more of them got injured in battle, we came to accept that they would do fine on their own, but I always had the sense of helplessness, that I should be doing /i to help them. that feeling never fully goes away."
Erin looked from her headmistress to Tallis. "It's just that...well, in that battle, I was too incapacitated to do anything as they were hit. I feel like I should have done something to have stopped that, but I couldn't. I feel like it's my fault they got hurt, and my responsibility to make sure they get better."
"Sometimes that happens. There isn't anything you can do to protect everyone, Negumi, and sometimes they get hurt, That doesn't make it your fault, or your responsibility."
Erin just continued staring at Tallis. He wasn't doing much. After a short period of hearing Jenna trying to get Patrick to lie down, Erin finally spoke. "Do you really think we're ready to face this new enemy, Professor."
She placed a hand on the girl's shoulder. "No, I don't, but that's why your here. You'll know when you are really ready, and then you will go out and truly fight them." She stood up and Tallis gave a small cough.
As Madison left unnoticed by any of her students, Tallis opened on ice blue eye. He tried to say something, but, like Patrick, was too weak to do so. Erin gave him a crocked grin. "Good morning."
He placed a hand to his throat. Unlike Patrick, who was merely hit in the chest with the attack, Tallis was hit in the throat, where a very nasty looking bruise was starting to form. He gave Erin a questioning gaze.
"Do you remember what happened?" Tallis gave a slow nod. "Well, that dark senshi hit you with her attack, and knocked you out. It looks like she hit your neck, so I'm thinking you may have trouble speaking for a little while. Don't worry, Patrick has to same problem, although I'm not sure why. It's an improvement though." She ducked as a pillow was thrown at her. She gave an almost genuine smile at that.
"I'm sorry if you don't like my talking." He croaked. Jenna then smacked him, and started to make him lie down again.
Erin sighed. "Lay off him, Jenna. He obviously doesn't want to listen to you, like always, so he isn't going to simply take this lying down. You know that."
"Yeah, but it makes me feel better to force him to do stuff."
The other three just looked at her like she was crazy.
~~~~@
Terra sat across from Angelica, staring at the blue alien girl. The professors had finally allowed them back to class, and it was training for them. Terra, Angelica, Melody, and Jake were in class together, while the others had another class. They were missing a certain male, but they weren't holding it against him today. However, the professor hadn't shown up yet, so all the class could do was sit on the mats, and stare at each other.
"I wish you'd quit looking at me like that." Terra blinked out of her thoughts.
"Sorry, lass. I was thinking."
Angelica smiled, her pearly white flashing against blue skin. "That's a first."
Terra chucked a training ball at her. "I was jus' wondering what exactly caused us not to have class this mornin'."
"Oh yeah, that. I'm not quite sure, and I don't think the professors want to tell us anytime soon."
"True, but /i had to have been there, lass, and I plan to find out who, an' get all the juicy details out of them." The professor walked in just then.
All that meant was now they were able to fight. The professor's job was to make sure no one got killed, and to drag injured students out of the room. Melody, across the room, had to pair up with another student whose usual partner was skipping.
"Humus Earth Power, Make-up!"
"Helios Sun Power, Make-up!" In a flash of green and gold, they were transformed.
Actually, it looked like a light show in the room as everyone powered up. The first time they had seen that in their first year, they had all been awed. Now, it had lost its appeal.
"Ok class, hand to hand combat first, and use your powers today only if you fine yourself in trouble."
Helios and Humus starting circling each other. "So, who do you think was in the attack yesterday?"
Humus looked for an opening. "I'm not quite sure. I figured it's ask around to see if anyon' knew someone."
Helios jumped at Humus, and the jade green haired senshi flipped her as she came near. Angelica hit the floor, and had the wind knocked out of her. "Well....maybe...Jake...knows...something."
"What makes you say that?" Humus reached over and helped Helios up so they could have another go.
"Because he isn't here. You know he wouldn't skip a class for no reason at all. So either Pat or Tallis was in the battle. See, we already know someone."
Humus rolled her eyes at Helios. "Like they would be willing to tell us what happened. Especially if one of their 'men' got injured. Well, Tallis might, as long as Pat isn't there to poke him in the ribs to keep him quite."
Helios ran up to Humus, and head butted her, which caught the older girl off guard. On the floor now, holding her stomach, she just looked shocked. "Did you have to hit so hard there?"
"It's practice, Terra. If I don't practice it hard now, then I'll go to easy on our enemies."
Humus stood up slowly, watching the red spot grow. "Remind me never to fight with you again, then."
Helios smiled. No one had been able to hurt Humus before. She was a sore loser when it did happen, it seemed, but Helios couldn't help by simply smile as Humus limped off, barely able to stand up straight.
Draco was also injured, not being one for hand to hand combat like her partner was. Usually, when paired with Jake, she would do ok, because, well, Jake would go slightly easy on her, and give her hints as to where to hit him. There were a few times when she had to blush when he told her, but other than that, she'd be able to at least hit him.
Humus could barely sit down, but managed to do so anyway. Draco was rubbing her arm, where a nasty whelp was forming. She also had what looked like the beginning of a black eye. "What's wrong with you?"
"I can't barely breathe, lass. Gotta problem wi' that?"
Draco shook her head, and watched as Helios and her 'partner' for the day paired up. Humus glanced over at Draco. "So...what doya think o' that battle last night?"
Draco did the same thing to Humus. "I really don't want to talk about it, Terra."
"Oh, why not?"
"Are you just looking for someone who was there, because, if you are, then you can stop looking."
Humus was about to respond before thinking about what Draco said. They sat in silence for a few minutes. "So, doya know why Jake ain't here?"
Draco sighed. "Both Pat and Tallis were knocked unconscious in the fight."
Humus gave an exaggerated oh. "Any one else hurt that should know about?"
Draco glanced over at Humus again. "Erin was thrown against the wall, and couldn't breathe for a short bit there, but, as you know Erin, she's probably the only one who could have the done to her and walk away perfectly fine."
Humus turned sharply on Draco. "An' you weren't plann' on telling me me best friend was injured?"
"I figured she would tell her herself!"
Humus sighed. "Well, I can imagine she's beating herself up pretty good right now."
Draco shrugged. "I wouldn't know. I haven't see n her all day."
Humus nodded, and stood up, making groaning sounds. The professor looked up at her. "Miss Fitz, what are you doing?"
"I think I was more injured then I thought, Professo'. May I go to the infirmary to get it checked out?"
Luckily, the red mark on her stomach looked bad enough to the professor didn't hesitant to send her out. Smirking, she headed down to the library, knowing that's where she could find her friend.
Sure enough, there was the red headed girl, staring at a book, but not actually looking at it. Humus, now in civilian form, pulled up a chair next to Erin. "Wanna talk about it?"
Erin glanced up at Terra. "Are you skipping training?"
Terra smirked again. "I hav' an 'injury'."
"You?" Terra pulled up her uniform shirt to show Erin the mark. "Ouch! Who did that?"
"Angelica and her hard head? Now, you wanna talk about it?"
Erin shook her head. "It's not really that, actually," she was merely guessing that Terra pulled the information from Melody, "it's something that Professor Madison told me."
"Hai?"
Erin slumped back into the position she was in before Terra came in. "Well, she told me there would be nothing I can do to help any of you if you go injured while fighting. That you'll recover by yourself and such, and that it'll never get easier."
Terra placed a hand on Erin shoulder. "You don't need to worry 'bout that, Erin. Yes, we may get injured, and it'll never be your fault, but, at some point or another, one of us will get so injured that the only thing that'll help us would be the fact that we would know someone needs us to be ok. While that may be a horrible experience to go through, at least you'll know you're helping. I mean, what happened when you went to infirmary, like I'm sure you did?"
"Well, Tallis was still unconscious, but he woke up."
Terra gave a slow nodded, as if understanding something for the first time. "Why did he do that?"
"I don't know. I was talking to Professor Madison, and she left, and he woke up."
"It's probably because he heard your voice, and wanted to see you."
Erin gave a slow smile, which faded. "Yeah, but he got injured on his throat, and won't be able to talk for awhile. And I'm..."
"It's not your fault, Negumi. You didn't shove him in the way of any sort of attack that could have done that. He most likely knew the risks of fighting before he even transformed, so never blame yourself for that."
"I just wish I could have don't more."
Terra lifted Erin's face up until green eyes met with teary brown ones. "You can't be doing everything at once, lass. Sometime you have to let people do only what they can, and that's one of the tasks of being an effective leader."
"But what if I can' be the leader everyone tells me I am?"
"You're worrying about Tallis, that's should be proof enough."
Erin sniffed, and then looked at Terra again. "Thanks."
~~~~@
The day went by, and soon it was time for dinner. Dinner was in a different place then lunch, as it was a meal that everyone had at the same time. Erin liked the dinning room this year, because it was more elegant than the lower classes dinning room. Each class had their own room, since they couldn't fit that many people in the small space. The tables were set up parallel to each wall, with a void space in the middle. The professors all sat at the table farthest from the doors, so they could walk students walk in and out.
Erin was waiting for her friends casually by the door. She knew it wasn't the most wise thing to do, seeing as she usually misses them. Sunny was already in the dinning room, saving some spaces. Someone was always the designated seat, because there were so many students that it would be difficult to find seats together otherwise.
So Erin was standing at the door when the mad rush came in. She hated when her friends came through the mad rush, because she can never spot them. Sometimes they come in early, and they were able to grab their seats before the rush comes in, then there are times when Terra holds them up. Erin thought she saw a flash of jade green hair walk by her, and , as she turned around to see if she had, she was suddenly swept up on the crowd.
This usually didn't happen to her, and she felt closed in with all the people looking for their friends. As she reached the west side of the room, a hand suddenly reached out and grabbed her, shoving her into a chair. She was about the protest before she saw she was seated next to Patrick and Tallis.
Erin blinked, and gave them an odd look. At this point, everyone had been seated. It didn't take long once everyone was inside. She spotted Terra and the others on the other side of the room, who gave a small wave at her. Things quieted down to the point where they could have a conversation.
Erin glanced down at her plate, which was empty. She then slid a sideways glance at Patrick.
"What?"
"Is there a reason you dragged me into this seat?"
Patrick looked sheepish. "Not really. It just looked like you were going to have some problems getting over there. Besides, we needed someone to replace Jake."
Erin glanced over to the other side again, and spotted Jake sitting next to a blushing Sunny. She gave a small smile. At least one of them was getting wanted attention. "What about Jenna?"
Patrick pointed her out with her own group of friends. "She never sits with me anymore. I wonder why."
Tallis placed a hand over his mouth to show he was laughing. "How are you feeling, Tallis?"
He shrugged. Erin guessed his voice box still hadn't recovered yet. "It's cool. I just wish Mr. Motor Mouth was the one who got injured severely, not you." She gave Patrick a sideways evil look, one that he didn't register.
"Shh, here comes Professor Madison." And then he started randomly piling food onto her own plate. Erin gave him an odd look.
The room become quiet as Professor Madison made her way to the head table. Once she reached her spot in the middle of the table, she paused a moment to study her students before picking up her glass and gently tapping her fork against it. Which proved to be unnecessary, for the room was dead quiet by the time she reached her seat.
"As you may all be well aware of, a few of our students yesterday were attacked by some unknown senshi. While we still haven't figured out the nature or motive of these new senshi, they still pose a threat to this establishment, and thus pose a threat to each and everyone one of you, experienced as you may think you are. As a result, we are forced to take some kind of measure. Until we learn more about these 'Dark Senshi', each of you is required to be with a buddy at all times. No matter what, if we catch you wondering around the halls by yourself, you will be punished for it. That is all, for now."
The room remained quiet a few moments after Professor Madison made her speech before erupted in noise the students asked each other what this could mean.
~~~~@
"Discordia! Get in here!" Nemesis impatiently tapped her foot, waiting for her underling to enter her command center. She took her time, and entered with an almost flowing step.
"Yes Nemesis?"
"Are we prepared for the next attack?"
Discordia grinned an evil grin upon hearing this. "Yes, revengeful one, all is ready for your command."