Chapter Twenty-Six:
Hunting For A Bargain

by Jen, Lege and Walker

A pleasant silence hung in the air, broken only by the occasional ruffling of pages. It was a contrast to the always milling streets where people enjoyed the sunny but somewhat brisk weather of late afternoon evening. Even as the sun slipped into the shadows of the alleyways and buildings inside the second hand bookstore it remained ever bright.

Ramakeele, or Keele as she told everyone else to call her, slipped past the next aisle. On one side, there was bookshelves filled with various astrological books alongside parapsychology books. On the other side were psychological books running down the whole length. Keele gave it a fleeting look, wondering in the back of her mind if she wanted to look down there. A quick shake of her head answered her unvoiced question.

"What was I looking for again?" Keele asked, her voice just audible to herself. She shifted the books she carried in both hands to under an arm so that she had a free hand. Stepping into the next aisle, she looked up to a worn hard-cover book of poetry. She drew her finger over its spine, feeling out the engraved letters. "Oh, yes. Now I remember. Virgil, wasn't it?"

Kneeling down to scan across the books down into playwrights, Keele placed her three books onto the floor, her purse gently hitting the carpet in the process. The items inside rustled about into new positions while the young girl look for the illusive Aeneid. She had already gone to several bookstores in search for the book for her literature class and each one of them proved to be pointless visits. However, she was referred to this store by the last cashier she spoke to on a tip. Hopefully, her luck would turn out for the better.

Maya stopped at the second shelf of psychology books, running her finger slowly along the edges of them as she read the titles. Stavros had been right about this place, it had an absolute wealth of fascinating books. Some bad ones too, of course, but she wasn't going to bother with those. There were enough intelligent sounding ones to make up for it, including the one that he had suggested she check out.

Jason waddled along next to her. The store was big enough, with a small enough staff, that he'd managed to go completely unnoticed. Still, she'd been worried about him accompanying her. He'd insisted on it, though, and who was she deny the poor platypus a night out? He was so often stuck in her backyard, swimming around in that bloody pond.

"Psssst, Maya, love!" she heard his Australian-accented whisper. "That girl, just across from you in the other aisle. Senshi!"

Maya's eyes widened as she nodded that she'd heard him, and slowly made her way down the aisle and towards the other girl, "Um, hello there," she said softly, trying not to attract too much attention.

In the attempt to not attract too much attention, she also didn't receive Keele's attention. Leafing through a book that wasn't the one she was searching for, she continued skimming through the text. Nothing was jumping out at her. With a silent sigh, she carefully slid the book back onto its shelf and continued looking.

Maya sighed, pursing her lips and looking accusingly at Jason. She'd never been very good at confronting people. "Um, excuse me," she said a bit louder, touching the girl's shoulder softly. This was not going at all how she'd imagined it would. It had been much, much easier awakening Hope... Although she'd had a lot of help there and hadn't really done much awakening.

Starting up suddenly, Keele looked at the hand on her shoulder. For a brief moment, she was surprised to see that the hand was nearly as dark as her complexion. That was truly a rare occurrence around Rome, even if it was an international city.

"I'm so sorry, I'm off in my own little world," Keele apologized, smiling serenely at the other girl. Without so much as a push with her hands, she was stretched out on her feet, standing to full height. Smile still in place, she cocked her head slightly to the side. "What had you asked me?"

Maya, being used to people sort of zoning out, smiled a bit, "I was wondering if we could speak a moment? You look familiar, and I thought I'd see if...if you were the person I thought you were."

True in a way. After all, if Jason was right, she was definitely someone Maya should recognize.

Pursing her lips together in concentration, Keele maintained her sideways gaze. In the back of her mind, there was a light buzz as if an alarm or sensor had gone off and this girl was the trigger.

"I don't think we've ever met," Keele finally concluded, her eyes relaxed from her previous scrutinizing. She cast her eyes on a series of unsearched shelves and twisted her lips slightly, discouragement quite clear on her face. "On that matter have you met a book by the name of the Aeneid? I can't seem to find a copy of it."

Maya sighed. This wasn't turning out anywhere near as easily as she had hoped it was going to be. She just wasn't -good- at getting people to speak with her. "I, uh, well, I know where you can find it," she said. Perhaps if she helped the girl, she'd be willing to go talk to her. "Over here." She made her way towards the proper section, running her finger along the titles until she came to the proper book.

"Perfect," Keele murmured, breaking out into a grin. Maybe she wouldn't wind up spending most of the evening searching for the book. The thought lifted her spirits up; she'd be able to check out that candle shop that she saw down the way. She needed some more tea lights after all.

Watching the swift fingers trail across the spines, she saw them come to rest on none other than the Aeneid. Keele wanted nothing else then to hoist up the book in triumph but instead she curled her fingers into her palms, telling herself to calm down. "Thank you so much, Mi-" Keele keened her head to the side again, "I'm sorry, what is your name? Mine's Ramakeele but, please, call me Keele."

Maya smiled, handing the book over to Keele, "Maya. My name is Maya Jilal but I've been known to go by Psyche."

Perhaps the name would jog a memory, and then she'd be able to get her to go with her, "Are you a fan of Greek Mythology, then?"

"Nice to meet you Maya..."

The name struck a bell, both names to be exact. Keele's face twisted in confusion, her eyes boring with the intensity of a professor faced with a troublesome student. Suddenly they relaxed, a light lightening her ebony eyes just a fraction.

"I must be losing brain cells - you go to Ambrit and it took me this long to recognize you," Keele lamented, shaking her head in disdain. Tiny braids scattered but stayed behind her shoulders. "Of course I know your name more then your face. You're in your final year, right? I'm in grade ten at Ambrit so we don't exactly have the same social circles after all."

Maya nodded, "That's right. Should be my last year, assuming I don't fail. Which I don't particularly plan to as I've already started taking a few university-level psychology courses."

She pushed her own braid behind her ear, "Listen, I know this is going to sound crazy, but would you mind if we left the store to talk? I'm a little claustrophobic..."

"Oh sure, not a problem," Keele agreed, taking the book fully in her hand so she wouldn't drop it. She lifted it with a little wave. "Just let me pay for this sucker and we can be off."

Slowing down her steps to make sure she could still keep herself aligned with Maya, Keele led the way to the cashier. Offering the woman a friendly smile and a good word for having the book, she paid and tucked the book into purse without need of a bag.

"Now that I've thought it over," Keele commented, stepping out of the shop with the bell on the door tingling softly for those who could hear it, "I also know Psyche. Married to Cupid - wait, that's Roman myth... Eros. That's right. Essence of the soul paired with love. Quite poetic when you think about it. Is that a pen-name of yours?"

Maya sighed, walking towards the side of the building where no one else would see or hear them, "Actually, it's a bit more than a penname..."

Jason, who had been making himself scarce until this point, waddled after them and then bumped into Keele's legs to get her attention, "S'right, mate. It's who she used to be. The goddess Psyche. Jus' like you used to be Artemis."

Keele blinked but nevertheless stared down at the animal before her. She vaguely recognized that its mouth was moving but that wasn't what was bothering her. "What is a platypus doing in the middle of the sidewalk? You're quite a ways from your pond, a couple oceans away, in fact."

Maya smiled a bit, "This is Jason, my Guardian. He came with me from Australia."

Keele didn't seem to be fazed by what he had just said and this rather confused Maya. In fact, the girl hadn't even mentioned it at all. "Do you want me to show you what he means?"

Maya's explanation did nothing to ease Keele's confusion; if anything it only amplified her confusion. She darted her eyes from Maya to the creature and back up to Maya. She could feel a headache coming on and she wasn't enjoying it.

"Okay... So he's your guardian. I would have thought you'd be his guardian but do you just let your animal just wandering around, and without a leash or harness or something?" Keele asked, gesturing out with a hand down to the platypus. "And what do you mean 'show you what he means?' His only means is waddling about. He could get stepped on!" With his safety in mind, Keele stooped down quickly and picked up the animal, balancing him in her arms as she stood up.

Jason quickly moved around a bit so that the poison spurs on his back legs wouldn't stab the girl and grinned as well as any platypus could, "I don't think she understood me, Maya luv. Although she ought to. Weird, that."

"I don't think she did either, Jason," the girl started, then directed her attention to Keele once more, "He sort of has to keep a low profile. I'm pretty sure platypi aren't allowed to be walking about in Rome but I couldn't leave him behind. He's supposed to help me find other senshi and train me for the battles and stuff."

She looked at Keele, "Or didn't you hear what he was telling you?"

"Senshi? Are they those masked marauders who have been trouncing all over the city that the papers have been talking about?" Keele asked, stroking the stiff fur over the platypus' head even while she looked at Maya. The conversation still left her baffled but she couldn't deny that she was intrigued that Maya seemed to know about the stories more then the reporters did.

"I honestly didn't hear him. And in fact I have not heard a single word you have spoken to me since we've met," Keele mentioned. Lifting her chin up with pride, she breathed deeply. "But since I have been carrying a conversation with you, being deaf isn't entirely a handicap. In fact, as long as I'm looking at your face - your mouth and eyes - I can pretty much determine what you are saying to me."

"Wait a second..." she murmured, her own words jerking her to reality. "Your animal was speaking to me?? How on earth-?"

Maya had to smile at that, "I know all about handicaps. My sister's autistic and, even if she does have learning problems, she's still one of the brightest little girls in the world. And you should see her art..."

Jason made noises of disapproval, and she snapped out of her reverie, realizing that she had been sidetracked, "Anyways, yes, Senshi are the 'masked marauders' you speak of. Only, not quite... Well, Jason can explain it better, but you obviously can't read -his- lips."

"You can translate for me, mate," Jason piped up, obviously enjoying all the attention he was getting, "Tell her that senshi are the reincarnations of the gods. The Greek gods, whom you and she are both the reincarnations of, are the sworn enemies of the Romanus. This is why you must be awakened so that you might be prepared for any attacks they might launch on you."

Maya nodded, quickly giving Keele the word-for-word explanation, "And you -are- one of us. Jason isn't just a regular platypus. He's the reincarnated form of Jason. You know, from Jason and the Argonauts? And he can sense the rest of the Greeks."

The usual part of her brain that would have been flapping out at having such a discussion, and with a platypus no less, was oddly silent - most likely stunned into silence. The effect was not lost on her speech, as the only word she was able to utter was an awed "Really?"

When a laughing couple bustled past them, weighed down with shopping bags each, Keele remembered where she was. It took a good bump with one of those bags before she looked from Maya to Jason. "Can we go somewhere safer to talk, some place not so out in the open?" Keele asked quickly, looking over her shoulder to see if anyone was approaching.

Maya nodded, leading the other girl further into the alley behind the store, "And, yes, really. Jason told me a year or so ago about the whole thing. It's really rather unnerving."

She pulled out the crystal globe that she always carried with her, holding it out for Keele's inspection. "All I do is lift this, say the proper phrase, and I become one of those 'masked marauders' you were talking about."

Jason shuffled around in Keele's arms, "Tell her she'll have to put me down so that I can get her item, Maya-luv," his words were really more request than command. He knew he didn't have to order her around to get her to do what he wanted her to.

Maya nodded, "Jason says you'll have to put him down so he can get yours and you can see all about it."

"It's that simple?" Keele asked, her first hint of suspicion coming through her calm demeanor. Crouched in the darkness of the alleyway she gave Jason enough time to get out of her arms.

Jason squirmed gently out of her arms, careful not to poke her with the poison spurs, and nodded, "Ah. No henshin. But that's okay. Tell her to say her phrase. She's Artemis, so it'd be 'Artemis Dea Power, Make Up' And then she'll see."

Maya nodded, "All right. You don't have an item, lucky." she produced her crystal orb, showing it to the girl, "I have to carry this around all over the place. All you have to do is say 'Artemis Dea Power, Make Up' and you'll transform. At which point, I get to explain to you all about what being a senshi involves."

Eying the crystal orb curiously still in her crouched position, Keele slowly raised to her feet. She didn't know just how the innocent-looking ball had the power to change Maya into a senshi; it just seemed far too unusual. But with another glance to the platypus still on the ground, it seemed that unusual was the order for the day.

"Right... Artemis, as in the Greek goddess right?" Keele confirmed, to make sure that she had the pronunciation right. She took the other girl�s nod for encouragement to continue. "So Artemis... Dea Power... Make Up?"

She staggered forwards as pain blossomed through her chest. Keele buckled to her knees, groping for the source of the pain. Through eyes that no longer seemed to be her own as they grew, not just in surprise but also widening across her face, she noted the arrow that had wholly emerged from her. Her first instinct was to smother the wound with her arms to staunch the blood flow but instead her hands had a life of their own as they pulled at the arrow, withdrawing it completely.

The seconds that followed were a blur, cast in shadows that scattered when she found herself back on her feet. She felt something twitch a top her head but was a little distracted, the arrow still held in her right hand. Confusion was plain on her face but it faltered as a breeze that she hadn't felt before brought goose bumps to her flesh. "Uh, is it just me or is it cold in here?"

Quickly, Maya put a hand over her mouth to prevent herself from gasping as the girl seemed wracked with pain. But then she had transformed, and she had to stop herself from giggles instead of worry, "I...oh dear," she said softly, looking at Jason for support. The platypus was purposefully not looking in her direction, "You might... want to have a look in the mirror," she said, producing one from the bag she carried around.

Keele didn't so much take notice of her armguard as she reached out to take the proffered mirror. Put a strangle hold on rising trepidation she raised the mirror to her face only to nearly drop it. Eyes, huge and wild looking, were out of place but what she was looking at were a pair of ears perched a top her head and twitching excitedly as though waving at her.

"What happened to me!?" she squeaked, dropping the mirror this time. Ignorant of the clacking noise on the cement she looked down at the rest of herself, making a noise that sounded like a groan and a squeak all at once. Legs completely bare aside from the thigh high boots, a bathing suit with a bib attached to it. Keele spun around, her head twisted to look at her back, to gawk at the audacity of the whole outfit. From the corner of her eye she saw the incessant flapping of what she reasoned was a tail - when did she get a tail? "What the hell am I supposed to be?"

Even Jason looked rather amused by this point and Maya put a hand on the girl's shoulder in an attempt to calm her down, "Don't worry, it only lasts as long as you're in your fuku," she said, "And you're, well, it looks like you're supposed to be a deer. Which rather makes sense, given that you're Artemis, doesn't it?"

She tried to put this all in a positive light, knowing the confusion the girl must be going through. She knew how shocked she'd been when Jason confronted her only a couple of years ago.

Brow creased in shame rather then anger, Artemis tried to voice her distress but only succeeded in looking like a land-borne fish. "Okay, so I'm a deer, or at least I'm dressed like one," Keele finally managed to say. "Please tell me I'm not the only one dressed like the escapees from the local zoo."

Maya shook her head, "Unfortunately, I can't tell you that. As far as I know the rest of the senshi, at least the ones I've met, don't look like animals in the least bit."

She spun her globe thoughtfully on her palm, "They look more like this. Psyche Deus Power, Make up!"

A flash of bright light and suddenly there she stood, her own fuku admittedly not too different from her regular clothing, "And there you have it. Well, truth be told I've only ever seen mine and Hope's, but still."

Diverting her eyes quickly as the light threatened to blind her, Artemis looked back once the stars disappeared from her eyes. 'Why couldn't I have gotten a skirt instead of having to be half-naked?' she thought with a little frown.

That frown took a gentler stance as she processed what Maya said. "Is Hope another senshi?" she asked.

Psyche smiled as she snatched the floating globe next to her, tossing it into the air like a baseball, "Hope is," she lowered her voice, just in case, "Hope is Pandora. She's just a kid but, then, there seems to be a craze in that lately."

Pain flashed briefly through her eyes. She still couldn't believe Lalasa but she was and there wasn't anything to be done for it but accept it.

Flinching inwardly at the pain that she saw in Psyche's eyes, Artemis wondered if she had said something wrong. She nervously ran a hand over her head, brushing up against her ears in the process. "Oh," Artemis murmured, biting her bottom lip. She didn't know what more to say to ease Psyche's discomfort but thought frantically to take the attention off her pain. "These attacks, how am I going to be ready for them? Actually, why do we need to fight in the first place?"

Psyche sighed, "You just have to patrol a lot and train. There's no way to really be prepared for an attack, mostly because it's hard to know what an enemy Senshi is capable of doing unless you've fought them before." She bit her lip thoughtfully. "And we have to fight, because they'll fight, whether we want to or not. From my experience, our enemies seem to be rather eager about it."

A figure moved into the shadows as if in answer to her statement. His armor glowed softly in the daylight, his costume causing a small sound as the leather bands that covered his torso, arms, and calves swished together. Discordia glanced out at the two strangely costumed women, expression sober.

In truth, Stavros Salvi was probably more concerned with being seen publicly like this than by the Graikos themselves as he tried to play it cool. He had been inside the bookstore but, unable to resist the urge, a feeling like burning, that there was something he should be concerned about. There was no kidding that the young man was more paranoid for his own safety than committed to the cause. So he had henshined out of fear and was very surprised to find his nagging intuition was correct.

He immediately felt a surge of assurance once his eyes came across the two other senshi. He stepped from the shadows with a small grin and interjected mockingly, "Oh, but why cannot we all be friends, mio amicas?"

Maya narrowed her eyes. She remembered quite well the last time she'd been in battle and this man gave her the same feeling like she'd just chomped on something metal in her mouth. "With a cheery attitude like that, is it any wonder?" she retorted, gripping her crystal globe tighter. She'd have to be fast if she were going to be of any use with her Soul Decision attack.

"Um... Psyche, is he one of those guys you were talking about earlier?" she hazarded to ask. The booming voice of obvious gave a loud resounding yes in her head but she awaited any sign from her teammate.

The Romanus rolled his eyes and gave an audible sigh, nostrils flaring, while he relaxed his posture. Discordia's mind raced to place the name against the roaring desire to attack. "Psyche," he stated, tasting the name, "Psi-ke-- ah, you both are Grecian? No, no... Graikos."

He raised an eyebrow and lifted his scepter to point at Artemis in an attempt to interrupt whatever the girl in the purple had to say. "You should know about the Romanus if you live inside the city. Any school child knows those stories." He lifted his head, furrowing his eyebrows, "Unless you two really are as brainless as you come off across."

Artemis delicately raised an eyebrow and did her best to place her hands on her hips despite holding a bow in one hand. The stance screamed haughty but it would have been hard for anyone to take the girl seriously, considering she was still a little self-conscious about all the leg she was showing. "Romans yes - Romanus no!" she retorted. "Don't you have any courtesy? I'm the only one here who doesn't know what's going on. So if you don't mind waiting to ream us out for ignorance let her fill me in first! Then ream!"

As Discordia got closer, Maya started feeling even more irritable. Something about the man just grated her nerves, "This is a Romanus, Artemis. They don't have any tact, and go around attacking people for no reason. That is why we have to fight them."

With that, she grabbed the globe that floated next to her, holding it tightly, "Now you can either leave, whoever you are, or you can fight us. Do try to pick quickly."

"And whom here is hasty to assume I plan on attacking?" He moved closer to Psyche while gesturing instructionally, "Artemis, our animal-eared friend, deserves both sides of the story. After all, one may never know who their enemies truly are." He turned on his heel slowly to better face the brown and cream clad Graikos. It was rare to have such a hostile audience. "Let's see. We Romanus are said to have lived here peacefully until your kind came from Greece in order to make war. You raped our women, burnt our fields, or something like that. Foreigners in Rome... sort of like now." He smiled patronizingly, "How ironic."

In a matter of seconds, the Romanus senshi had successfully gotten underneath Artemis' skin and she was itching to take him down a notch or two. Squaring herself she allowed herself a small smile. "Indeed ironic, considering that your city - no, your nation - was built out of foreigners. In fact was it not because our people that your country was populated? Aeneas only came to Italy because of the war his people started against us."

"Hey, mate, that's all lies!" Jason scolded Discordia, angry, "None of that's true. There wasn't any raping or anything like that going on. I would know. I was alive around then."

Psyche narrowed her eyes, "Listen. Either attack or leave," she nearly snarled at the Romanus, "You aren't very pleasant and I don't want to be bothered with you. I have much better things to be doing."

"Something got your nerves, Bella?" The Romanus' patience was waning, so he quickly put the small one with the ears out of his mind. His chocolate brown eyes turned to meet Psyche's mismatched pair as he calmly stated, "I would not advise listening to everything your little Hercules says."

Pupils flaring golden, he leaned in closer to her and whispered, "As I have found out, the enemy of my enemy is my friend."

"What are you up to?" Artemis demanded, a wrinkle forming across her nose. Taking a better grip on her bow she neared her teammate facing off with the Romanus. "You better watch what you're saying, gladiator."

As they watched, a golden collar appeared on Psyche's neck, and her eyes glazed over a bit, fury marring her features as she pulled the daggers keeping her hair up, hair which consequently fell about her shoulders in its usual soft curls, "You -bastard-!" she shrieked angrily, lunging for the leather-clad senshi, "I'll -kill- you!"

Discordia reeled back from her knives in shock. He hadn't foreseen this turn of events, but apparently his power didn't work exactly as he imagined. He readied his scepter defensively and kept a careful eye on the mad Psyche. Yet his thoughts drifted back over to the other girl and an opportunity that was too tempting to resist presented itself. A chance to show he was "right" after all.

He looked over at Artemis, dangerously distracting his attention, and begun a litany punctuated by oomphs while attempting to dodge his oppressor. His voice was stressed, but pressing, "You -see?- They are all mad! No restraint, no predictability! All the Graikos are like this and you will be too!"

Gaping in disbelief, Artemis looked to Jason for some indication of what was going on despite knowing she wouldn't understand what he might have to say. Looking away from the platypus, she turned her attention to her teammate advancing on the Romanus, trying to figure out just what transpired.

"She seemed perfectly fine before you cut in!" she insisted, stepping in closer to the fighting senshi only to jump away slightly when a weapon got too close. "What did you do?"

Jason blinked as his little Maya seemed to make a complete transformation in front of his eyes. What was it about Discordia that was making her so crazy? She'd never been this irritable before. "Don't listen to him, Artemis, mate," he called out, temporarily forgetting that she couldn't hear him, or even read his lips since he didn't have any. "He's lying! He did something to Psyche!"

Psyche, on the other hand, was doing everything in her power to try and stab Discordia with her daggers. Shrieking in outrage, the little Indian shoved herself forward, hoping to unbalance him.

Her plan was successful as Discordia was still largely on the defense. Suddenly open, one of Psyche's daggers was able to meet its mark as it racked a gash across his chest. His eyes blazed in hatred as the pain registered. Completely irrational, he threw back an arm and forcefully chucked his scepter toward Psyche. Although missing completely, the senshi backed away from the Graikos and grasped the wound with both hands, doubled over in pain. He grumbled through clenched teeth, �Stupid spell."

"So you did do something?" Artemis asked, voice livid as two eyebrows rose as one. Even as he backed away from his opponent he found himself facing another one. Swinging up her bow she placed one long tip against his throat, just hard enough to show him how sharp it was. "Then it's my turn to do something," she said, eyes dark and foreboding, "unless you're smart enough and leave now."

He retracted an arm from his chest and quickly grasped her bow; his hand leaving traces of blood on the shaft as he bent it far enough away so that he could speak without any more pain. The senshi grumbled under his breath in quick raspy Croatian, "Holy Mary, this stupid war just ends up with barely clad whores jabbing my internal organs..."

Discordia shook his head and met her menacing look hatefully. The pain wasn't helping his mood as he slipped back into Italian, "Listen to me. I didn't ask for this. I didn't ask to be Discordia or whoever." He jabbed his pointer finger at Artemis to add to the point. "But I'm not going to let you tell me what to do. This entire thing is idiotic."

Helping Discordia with his task, Artemis removed her bow tip fully away from him, his hand surprisingly pliant. But then she seriously doubted that if a threat was moving away from him he would have wanted it to stay.

"You didn't ask for this? Do you think any one would ask for this? Twenty minutes ago I was taken away from my sweet bit of reality into this world of fantasy," Artemis pointed out, nostrils flaring as she struggled to keep herself from yelling. Swinging her arm back to her side, her bow fell against her leg. "Take the spell off of her... please?"

Maya all this time had been struggling with a platypus who kept attempting to hold her back. It wasn't really working very well, especially considering that the platypus was half-tempted to let her go postal on the Romanus, "Artemis! Stop with the pleasantries, mate!" He hadn't been this angry in centuries. "He hurt Maya somehow! Destroy him!"

With that, he let the little Hindu go, and she launched herself at her enemy once more.

"Use... Hunting Party! Say Hunting Party, Artemis!" Jason called out. He didn't want Maya to get hurt and Discordia was expecting her to attack now and he was much much bigger.

Artemis was thrown back by the momentum that Psyche threw off as she charged at Discordia. Spinning on her feet to avoid falling she rebalanced herself in no time but she watched with waning patience as the skirmish continued.

"That is enough!" she protested, throwing herself back into the fight and between the two bloodthirsty senshi. She wasn't sure whose elbow it was but she received an elbow to the eye for her intrusion. With a growl she pushed Discordia away, with more force then she knew she had. Keeping her hands on his arms she glared up at him. "Take the spell off her or so help me..."

Instead of replying, Discordia took a free arm and swung at the peacekeeper as well as he could between nursing his wound and avoiding the crazed Psyche. Artemis didn't realize that he had no control over how long what he had done - powers never worked that easily. The blow stuck the girl's shoulder, effectively knocking her far enough away for the Romanus square off properly with Maya.

With wounded pride, Artemis clutched her shoulder tightly as though she was fatally struck. Jarring her shoulder, she staggered back, bewildered and furious. "Arruso!" With the fury clouding her head she wasn't aware of the motions she was going through, plucking an arrow from over her shoulder, notching it against raised bow and aiming at the dark man. "Hunting Party!"

Psyche blinked suddenly, coming to her senses just as the attack formed. She pulled back, blue and green eyes blinking even more as she came to realize what exactly was going on. She'd attacked someone? Without reason? Her? Her mother would kill her if she ever found out. Violence was strictly against her Hindu beliefs.

Artemis couldn't have been more grateful not to have Psyche charging back at Discord. Biting her lip hopefully she glanced over her shoulder to see Psyche blinking confusedly. "Psyche, are you alright? You - you weren't yourself."

Psyche nodded, "I'm fine now. Although you'll have to tell me later just went on. I haven't a clue what I got up to, only that I was..off..somehow."

Even as the two Graikos sorted themselves out, Discordia had drawn away a few feet and was staring about blindly, the whites of his eyes showing. The tailed girl, Artemis, she had said something. What had it been?

His hands tightened on his scepter and he turned to look over Artemis' shoulder. Whatever she had said, it didn't matter. There were dogs coming up fast behind her. Dogs coming for -him-. With a hissed curse, he took another step back. They were running fast. They would reach him soon. Then they would tear him apart.

Discordia decided that he had done quite enough.

He didn't even pause to deliver a parting shot before he spun on his heels and disappeared down the nearest alley, running as if the devil himself was coming to fetch him.

Delayed in response, Artemis instead watched as their opponent dashed off with ghostly dogs - her dogs - hot in pursuit. The words that she called out still lingered on her lips but she figuratively and literally plucked them away to store them in her memory as she touched her mouth with her fingertips.

"It's about time," she murmured as she turned back to Psyche. Her teammate still had her dagger in her hand and she wasn't entirely positive if she broke free of Discordia's influence. "Psyche, you were attacking him. You wouldn't listen to me while I tried to separate you two. He must have put you under a spell."

The little Hindu narrowed her eyes, also watching their 'opponent' leave, "Jerk," she muttered, sighing, "I'll bet he did it, at that. They all seem to want fights. Do you see now why we really need your help?"

She decided not to bring up that in all reality she was useless in a fight. Unless, of course, Discordia decided to use that spell on her regularly. That, at least, seemed to make her useful even if her own powers didn't.

Jason had settled himself comfortably at her feet by this point, and was muttering something along the lines of, "Don't ever scare me like that again, love," though Artemis obviously wouldn't have been able to hear, and Psyche wasn't paying attention.

Now didn't seem the time for witty remarks, even though Artemis was yearning to respond with 'to finish other people's fights?' to her teammate's question. It was rude so Artemis resorted to biting on her lip gently.

"Is it possible to do anything else other then fighting?" Artemis asked with a heavy sigh, crossing her arms loosely in front of her. Her eyes sunk down and though she didn't consciously intend to she watched the distraught platypus get as close as possible to his proteg�. "Are you going to be okay?"

Maya shook her head, sighing a bit, "It really isn't. They start the fights, and it's all we've been able to do just to get away without anyone getting to seriously injured, though I've had the air knocked out of me far more frequently than I'd like to remember."

Jason nipped at her ankle a big, "Maya-luv, we have to get home. Lalasa's going to be waiting."

"Oh, right. Yes, I'll be fine. Here..." she reached into her bag and pulled out a notebook, hastily scribbling a number onto a piece of paper and ripping it out of the book to hand to the other girl, "If you need anything call me, okay? I'd like it if you'd come patrol with me sometimes, too... But you don't have to. It's up to you. We could use your help, but I'm not forcing you into anything."

With a playful smirk Artemis handed the sheet back to Psyche. "This isn't going to help me much, I don't suppose I could get your e-mail address instead?�

Maya blinked. Oh, yes. She had forgotten that the other couldn't hear her.

"That may be problematical. My mother doesn't allow me to use the internet at all so I don't actually -have- an e-mail address."

With a second to think, though, she jotted down her address on the paper, "You can come by here, though, if you need me. If I'm not about just tell my mother that you are a friend from school and leave a note with her. Or Lalasa, my sister, but my mother if possible-- Lalasa isn't necessarily the best with remembering those sorts of things."

"I'll keep that in mind." That wasn't the only thing on her mind, though; she looked over her shoulder to make sure that Discord wasn't going to make a reappearance. Without the other senshi in sight she felt more of her confidence coming back. "Now that our little meet and greet for the evening is over I don't suppose you could tell me how to get out of this get-up?"

Psyche carefully picked up Jason, making certain not to let the poison spurs on his back claws touch her, and nodded to Artemis, "Just imagine yourself in your usual clothing and you'll power-down," she said, doing so herself. Not that anyone would really take notice of her clothing if she walked into the house still in Senshi uniform. Her mother had seen her wear stranger stuff, and usually didn't pay attention anyways.

Clearing her mind of all other thoughts but her wardrobe she felt her body tingle, like ants crawling over her skin. When she looked down at herself sure enough she was back to her regular clothes. "Until we meet again," Keele said, running her hands over her clad thighs. "I hope not to be as clueless the next time this happens."

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