Welcome to Gaia! ::

The breeze was chill tonight. She felt it as it rustled her hood and teased out strands of dark hair. Reaching up, the eternal senshi tucked the hair back as she sent her eyes out over the city, skating over the dark shadows and empty alleys. If she closed her eyes, she could just feel the auras of other powered people haunting the wee hours of the morning, but Ida was reluctant to engage any of them just now. The nightmare that had driven her out into the pre-morning was still too fresh in her mind, the destruction she’d seen putting her on edge, compounded by everything else she had been dealing with. It didn’t seem to be getting any better, but what more could she do? Soldier on, that was all. Try to be useful, even if she avoided her friends and the people she knew.

Stepping up onto the ledge of the building, Ida crouched and glanced down, measuring the distance before she leaped to the roof next door. Eternal strength made it easy and from there she walked slowly across, rooftop gravel crunching under her white boots. Maybe if she just… walked for a while, she could return home and try to sleep a little bit before she had to be up to man the store. Matthew was getting annoying, poking her about the dark circles under her eyes and complaining about her screaming in the middle of the night… it wasn’t like she could help either of those.

It was a shame she couldn’t get to Ida yet… it was the only relief she found.

General Painite was in no mood for games or fun tonight. She was on the hunt. Wait, was it still night? She could not even tell. After her battle with that knight and her embarrassing injury, and the Senshi that subsequently found her and tried to help her, Painite was not feeling at her best and was not too aware of herself or her surroundings. All she really knew was how angry she was, and how embarrassed she was. Her pride had been damaged more than her body, though the injury she’d taken to her head was serious enough and she had not healed it.

Maybe she was being stubborn about it now, not eating any energy or a starseed to help with the healing process. Instead, she wore the ugly cut across her temple like a badge, and set about resuming her hunt. Her head was full of confusing thoughts, and she could not tolerate being shaken in such a terrifying way. Showing her kindness was the ultimate attack against her, in its way. She had no defense for it, aiming to be the enemy of all those she hated, and wanting everyone to know it.

Knowing that somehow there were still Senshi out there that wanted to take the risk and offer her kindness threw her understanding of the world into more confusion. The Chaos inside her roiled and rebelled at the idea, and she turned to the only thing that made her feel better in an effort to escape the confusion.

That was the hunt.

The General turned when she felt the aura of another senshi in the area. It wasn’t the same one as before, this one stronger, but she teleported toward it immediately anyway. A new threat, a new game: that was what she needed to forget the rest of the events of the night. Maybe her night could still be saved, though morning was on the horizon.

“Well look who we have here.”

Painite felt her heart leap into her throat as she saw just who she was following, grinning ear to ear now, though she looked wild and more dangerous than normal. If that were possible. A senshi she not only recognized, but had a lot of fun tormenting was just waiting for her, like a little present from the universe. This was her second chance.

The feel of a general level aura suddenly exploded into her senses and Ida had to stifle a cry as she spun, fully expecting that her worst fear had caught up to her… but what she found was honestly not all that much better. This was a familiar face, another demon she had faced and triumphed over in, but recent events had done a lot to crush what confidence she had gained for herself… what faced Painite this time was a senshi who had been badly rattled and was still recovering. It brought them, somewhat, down to a more even level, but all Ida knew was that here was someone she had never wanted to face again, the cut on her forehead noted and forgotten just as quickly.

“Painite.” The senshi said with resignation, her hands lifted defensively. “Long time no see. I suppose its useless to hope you’re going to just move on.”

She really hadn’t been looking to get into a fight tonight. This was probably the last thing she wanted right now… even if it could prove to be a good distraction from her worries. Was she that far gone, actually… maybe wanting this? A chance to do violence to someone? It made the senshi uncomfortable and she shifted back and forth on her toes.

“I beat you once… I’m not afraid you any more. I’ve faced a lot since that time Horatio upgraded me, things won’t be any easier this go around.” If worse came to worse… she could call her team, and it was something of her duty to protect this city… very well. She could do this and vent some frustration at the same time.

“Oh no, I’m here to play, and I’m not going to let you get away from me so easily this time. I’m aware of all your tricks now, and you know what? I don’t give a s**t what you try and do: I’m going to kill you. I’m going to enjoy it, ripping you apart and letting you see the pieces before you die. Bleeding to death, that’s your destiny tonight, how does that sound?”

Painite watched the other and grinned, though it looked more like the way a tiger bares its teeth while it was hunting. She was not amused, not feeling any warmth or enjoyment. She was thrilled to be facing another battle, hungry for it, but there was no true joy in her any more. She was not sure she knew what it felt like, if she were asked, but she tended to avoid conversations like that. Threatening lives and exchanging banter, that was what she preferred her conversations be largely comprised of these days.

Anything else was a bit too far outside her comfort zone. Chaos was all she knew. And it was nice.

“You consider our last fight a victory, huh? You were lucky, and you got away because of that. It wasn’t your skill or your will to survive that helped you, it was pure dumb luck and a well placed cat. You won’t be so lucky this time. There’s no where else for you to go. You might think you’re a match for me now, but you’ve barely begun to see what I’m capable of. But you better pay attention this morning, because you’re not going to get the chance to see it again.”

Her expression darkened and she charged then, not willing to waste any time. She called her weapon to her hand and then blinked out of existence for a moment, reappearing just behind her and stabbing her weapon forward almost immediately, aiming for the Senshi’s back and slashing downward. She was going to go all out: holding back only allowed her to leave her weaknesses open. She was so damn tired of her prey getting away from her, and not earning it in a way she thought was worthy. If they fought back, if they beat her flat out, that was something else entirely. Instead she felt constantly cheated by the White Moon and all their little tricks: it just made her hate them all the more.

She always forgot they could teleport… until they did it and sent a fissure of fear running through her. Dang it… there had to be a way to deal with that…

Ida twisted as soon as she saw Painite blink out of existence, knowing there was an attack coming, even if she didn’t know from where. Even that preventive measure wasn’t enough to fully evade the thrust of a spear and she bit back a cry as the cold metal cut a slice over her skin, a red line of blood beading up and trailing down from the gash over her arm. The senshi clapped a hand to it as she rocked back and swept her leg up, heel leading a chest high strike at the general. Her arm burned, but she ignored it. Other things hurt worse, things that wouldn’t heal so quickly, so what was physical pain to that?

“It won’t be dumb luck this time.” She gritted out between her teeth, the transparent cloth at her waist fluttering with her motions. She needed to get some space… a glowing arrow or two would help cool this woman’s blood lust. Ida would enjoy stuffing them right down her throat… anger starting to bubble up in her chest. She was tired of this, tired of them, tired of this whole, stupid war… tired of friends dying, turning into enemies, everything! She didn’t know if she would truly take out Painite tonight, but dang it… she was going to give it a good try. She had promised her team that death would not be their policy, but things had changed… and part of her wanted it, as dirty and disgusting as that made her feel. Maybe the choice would be taken out of her hands and maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing… if she were the one to fall, that would end the pain entirely, wouldn’t it?

Painite always used her teleportation to her advantage, and had styled her fighting style around the ability. She felt that having a power the senshi could not mimic was something to be taken advantage of, and since they had no idea how to teleport, they were clearly no match for it. She liked being able to do something they could not counter, and it helped that it was also a very intimidating power when used right. She liked getting the drop on people, just appearing out of no where and attacking without warning. Who would not be scared of an enemy that could show up at any time, if they were good at what they did?

The Negaverse, as a whole, needed to understand their own power better. That was one thing Painite fought for, usually.

Not tonight, though. Tonight she could not care less about the Negaverse or anyone else in it, besides herself. She had no other goal but to teach this particular enemy a lesson she would not soon forget. Or, better yet, a lesson she would have no chance to forget.

She vanished again as Ida tried to defend herself, though this time she reappeared a few feet back. Teleporting could drain her energy quickly, but she seemed unaware of it, or just willing herself to the fight so much that she did not notice the drain on her own body. She had nothing to lose, she felt, at this point. All she was, all she had left, was Chaos. She could put herself entirely into every fight, and if she did not succeed then what would the difference be? All she saw was winning, anyway, by any means necessary, and destroying the White Moon one by one, piece by piece. Her life was ultimately meaningless, but for that. She could not remember the last time she had powered down for anything other than sleeping.

“Getting scared, Senshi?” She asked, grinning viciously before she teleported again. She did not appear behind Ida, as might be expected, this time. Instead, she appeared directly in front of her, spear at the ready, and stabbed the weapon forward at Ida’s gut.

Her boot met open air and Ida brought it down with a snap to settle her stance on two feet again. That was probably to be expected, but that teleportation could only be used so many times… if she could just keep herself in the fight until the general wore herself out it would take away much of her advantage.

Dark eyes snapped to where the negaverser reappeared and a scowl pulled her eyebrows together, a line creasing her forehead. They were all like this… vicious, quick, ruthless… they were all monsters and there was no hiding it from her any more. She could see right through them, though some were more transparent than others.

“You haven’t scared me since I got my wings.” Ida said before she blinked, the figure before her no longer there… and then there again, but far too close for comfort. The senshi jerked and twisted desperately, but the thrust of the spear was so fast… she felt the metal bite into her flesh again, more blood flowing as a gash appeared on her side where the cloth of her fuku was cut. Ironic… right below the scar of the old injury. Things always seemed to come around again, didn’t they? History repeating itself.

Ida made no effort to break away though… not this time. Rather, she grabbed the spear and pulled as she pushed herself forward, sending her own shoulder into Painite’s stomach. Letting go of the spear, she opened her arms to grapple, maybe take them both to the ground with her momentum. That spear would work best from a little bit of a distance… up close like this, she was inside the strike range of the cutting end, rendering it useless.

Painite never really liked it when anyone else touched her weapon. It was an extension of herself in some ways, but something sacred and unique in another. It was like someone grabbing an animal or a child and trying to take it from its mother, and the Negaverse General did not much appreciate the thought. She loved her weapon more than anything else, and, really, it was the only thing she had these days. The very idea that a White Mooner would try to touch it made her blind with rage.

Or it would, if she had not already been that angry to start with.

Even so, she was not anticipating it, and she was easily taken off her feet and to the ground when Ida lunged at her. Her balance was compromised, anyway, with her head injury still ailing her, and she should not have been out picking more fights in that condition anyway. She struggled, kicking her feet and trying to at least turn them so she could be on top and get some sort of an advantage. As it turned out, hand to hand combat was not her specialty. She had trained herself with her spear, and with shock tactics and traps. Getting up close and personal like this was not something she liked to do. She could rely on the strength given to her as a Negaverse General, but if Ida had more experience in close combat, she had the advantage.

That did not mean Painite was going to just go easy and just take the hits as they came, of course. She lashed out like a wild cat, except she had the fortune of being able to make fists instead of just using paws and claws. She punched at the Senshi with everything she had, wildly, not aiming for anything more than contact with a body part.

“Get off of me, you little s**t!”

Honestly, Ida hadn’t been expecting that tackle to actually work… but before she knew it, the pair was crashing to the ground and the general was fighting like a wild animal to get her off. The strikes were… uncoordinated, hitting her randomly… She felt fists slammed into her rips, her chest, even right in the face, snapping her head back as her teeth cut through the skin and she tasted blood. Blinking the tears of reaction out of her eyes, the eternal hauled back and aimed a punch at Painite’s face, stepping so far out of her comfort zone with this type of brawling. She wasn’t a hand to hand fighter either, her attacks ranged arrows, but she lacked whatever desperation the general was feeling at the moment, letting her focus… instincts telling her to hit her in areas that would incapacitate, daze, leave her open for more…

This fight was just crazy… she never fought like this. She never fought while feeling like this, and she’d certainly never gotten into close range with Painite, of all people. A sudden lurch of the body under her tossed the senshi and Ida struggled to keep from being thrown, feeling a sudden jolt of fear. If Painite pinned her to the ground she would be at a great disadvantage… and it would leave her vulnerable to a starseed grab. Just the thought of it was enough to make her hands shake and her own strikes lost some of their coordination. She had to separate them… this wasn’t a good way to fight. She wasn’t a brawler and now that the thought had surfaced, all she could think about was how close her starseed was to hands that would ruthlessly pull it from her chest… like every nightmare she had been having every night of the last month…

General Painite was feeling nauseous and weak, but she was not going to let that get in the way of her winning this fight. She was not going to be embarrassed by this senshi again. She was not going to let the White Moon walk all over her, or go on thinking that they can just walk away from fights with her. She needed to be the woman she thought she was, the one she pretended to be with all her scare tactics and big words. She needed to destroy her enemy, and make sure that anyone who found the body knew just who left it behind.

Painite could not lose. She would not lose. She could not take it.

That was the last straw for her. That thought. She struggled with Ida but pulled one hand away, Ida still pinning her to the ground for the most part, and called her weapon to her. Instead of using the large weapon against Ida, unable to get a good swing or a possible angle at this weird position, she slammed it down against the ground as hard as she could. She could not remember the last time her weapon had been broken in combat, and never before had she broken it herself. The sound of the wooden pole snapping under the force of her swing almost broke her heart, tearing through her like a bolt of lightning. She almost felt the pain in her arm, as if she’d broken a part of it in splintering the spear. The pointed head, the business end as she liked to call it, bounced away from her, leaving her with a much shorter, broken stick to use. It was good enough. She turned the stick in her hand, the bottom of her staff sharpened to a dangerous point, though not as intimidating on sight as the spear head was. It was not something to underestimate, though, and she lashed out at Ida with it.

She stabbed straight up, aiming for Ida’s body, not caring what she hit so long as the Senshi was impaled on the pike like the pig Painite considered her to be. She had promised blood and death, after all, and she was not one to make promises she could not fulfill.

Rage poured off Painite in waves Ida could almost feel, but it made her reckless… prone to do unexpected things like a cornered animal. Ida hit her again with her fists, pounding her chest, until the sharp crack of breaking wood pulled her attention up right in time to have that broken haft slammed into her side. The pain and shock of it pulled a scream from the senshi as she snapped a hand down to grab the spear and keep the general from pushing it further into her, a small, small voice whispering that it was a good thing it was the broken wood and not the sharp metal that had hit her… she felt blood trickling down her side as she struggled to breathe past the pressure squeezing her lungs.

All at once, fear flooded Ida and she jerked herself back, still clutching the shaft sticking out of her side, and she struggled to move off, get back up onto her feet… this fight was wrong. She didn’t want this any more. There was no victory in this, only the possibility of her own demise, and she found that she desperately didn’t want to die today. She had thought, when they started… that maybe she didn’t care any more… but faced with the possibility, she rebelled against it. There were too many people she cared about, too much she wanted to do, and that instinct, that drive to live, pushing her too hard to give in. She just had to get away…

Whimpering in pain and effort, the eternal jerked the broken shaft from her side despite the gush of blood, dropping it as soon as it was free to clap a hand down over the wound. She had to end this soon, or blood loss would do it for her. Fighting down the pain, Ida hauled back to swing a kick at the general, hoping to put her enough out of commission to make a break for it.

Painite was stunned and in a great amount of pain, battered from Ida’s hits and from the concussion she had entered the fight with. It certainly had not gotten better in the time she had been engaged in combat, oddly enough. She felt thoroughly satisfied and invigorated by being able to stab the Eternal Senshi, but she had no will to keep the battle going. Well, maybe the will, but the strength was lacking despite the thrill coursing through her.

When Ida kicked her it was not something she could block, and she rolled away from the Senshi after the kick connected with her side. She felt something snap and a terrible burning coursed through her side, making her want to curl up. She resisted, too proud for that, and instead struggled against her body’s commands to get to her feet. It was like fighting against gravity itself, and she was hopelessly out classed there.

She did, at least, get to her knees, and she looked at the bleeding senshi with that same wild look as before, grinning, though it was not recognizable as a smile. She banished the broken pieces of her weapon, taking a slow, pained breath. Looking up, she tried to say something, but the pain in her body, in her side and her head, rushed over her and the dizziness knocked her senses away. She could not muster herself enough to speak, instead focusing on getting to her feet. Or at least staying on her knees and not collapsing completely.

Ida watched Painite struggled to rise and was relieved when she couldn’t make it to her feet. This was the opening she had been waiting for, the perfect opportunity. If she couldn’t even stand, there would be no teleporting, and a precious few seconds to get enough distance she could lose herself among the other civilians out this morning…. not that she wasn’t going to stand out, looking like she’d gotten mugged, but at least there would be no power signature to give her away.

The moment Painite wavered, the eternal senshi broke and ran, throwing all her pride to the winds. She could care less about the cowardly move of fleeing from battle… far more concerned with simply surviving now. This whole episode had been pointless and stupid… she should have never let herself get drawn into it. Her hands clutching her wound, Ida worked with all her eternal speed to put as much space between herself and the general as she could, leaving her there on her knees in the street. Let her own kind deal with her, or some other senshi or knight. Ida was just done.

It wasn’t until she had turned down a few side streets that the eternal slowed and let go of her henshin, sagging weakly against the side of a building. She could only afford herself a few moments though, knowing she needed to get away from the last spot her signature had been. She needed to call Xander… before she passed out from blood loss. Goosebumps prickled her skin at the feel of liquid running down her arm and side and she winced as she pushed herself upright, shuffling her tired way down the street.