Welcome to Gaia! ::

Stubbornly, Aptera ignored the feeling she was having, something like a voice sounding in her head, that this was probably a bad idea, a really bad idea. Victories are out of the grasp of cowardly hands and she did not want to sit back and let the number of losses roll up in counts without trying to take a stand, endeavoring to do something, to help in someway, in at least one way. She didn't have much of a grasp of how to effectively help as of yet, but it took shots to make shots.

She dropped down from one of the tree branches, and then stepped in front the young man exuding the signal of chaos with arms crossed, alert and wary seriousness being expressed by her features. "What's on your agenda?" Aptera asked him.

She doubted he'd give her a straight answer. However, where there was a chaos signal there was likely trouble to witness. And, though she could do without trouble, more so she'd rather not see someone else in trouble if she could help it. There might be a chance she'd learn something helpful or at least be an obstacle to accomplishing dastardly plans targeting others to some extent. She really didn't want to rope anyone else into a mess while she did comprehend that there was more safety in numbers.

All in all, the approach she had taken in responding to the beacon being given off by the individual before her was this one.

Anger sparked within her at the sight of what was dropped and alarm heightened Aptera's alertness in how she felt her muscles tense. However, she endeavored to keep her appearance calm for the most part and for her mind not to get so carried away with recklessness that would likely prompt such a manner of actions. However, that was easier said, or rather more appropriately in these circumstances: thought, than done.

She gradually uncrossed and dropped her arms to her sides as she moved forward with a demeanor purposefully wrapped with her curiosity and replied in the process of doing so, "Well, why I asked is because I'm interested in further comprehending magical matters." She picked up the starseed her sights were set on with her next words, "Hmm, may you please explain to me why a starseed seems so valuable, such as the usefulness such a gem as this has perhaps?"

As she listened to his starseed explanation, a memory flashed through her mind from the war in Negaspace: starseeds being ripped out of chests amidst the battle to the portal.

And then, with her anger seeping from within her, her expression hardened to some degree as she stepped into a braced stance.

While she slipped the starseed into her dress's empty side pocket, Aptera raised her other forearm into a block as she made quick work of sweeping one foot from behind her into a frontal reverse crescent kick that she aimed for the outer side of her foot to make forceful contact with the side of Alum's torso. "Why not cut ties with your boss instead of executing criminal activities?"

"What details could there be behind you being so willing to risk your life and the lives of others through such methods as stealing starseeds for that goal?" It was more of bewildered pondering on Aptera's part as to why she voiced the query aloud amidst her gradually becoming more audible breaths, like a reflex without much thinking involved when the words slipped from her lips seeing as she was occupied with another matter at the same time. Specifically, there was also the present matter of not being fond of the probability of getting hit and injured and yet also not wanting to severally injure who she was facing off with.

She had ducked to one side as she raised the fist nearest the offensive directed at her that brought up that forearm of hers to push away at the contender's punching forearm. And immediately following up these motions, Aptera sent a palm heel strike at her opponent's chest area right below the nearest one of his shoulders within her reach. She had hissed at one point during the initiating of the process of executing this response of hers since she hadn't fully deflected the blow that to some extent impacted one of her shoulders before she reacted in time for her partial block preceding her counterstrike.

She welcomed the breaths of air she took in while a tangled array of emotions insisted on prompting a persistent tightness within her chest. In light of such events as becoming a member of the taekwondo academy she's been attending lessons of being one example, she's been continually finding that the further experiencing of the art of combat progressively is exhilarating to her.

But this, this was definitely far from a happy occasion. Decidedly, Aptera now more readily wanted to hastily identify and seize an opportunity to make her exit along with the starseed she was intent on successfully rescuing from the grasp of chaos. Decidedly, she would endeavor to knock him out. The complications of this war were so frustrating, so, so frustrating.

When her opponent reaching towards her registered in her mind, Aptera reacted by moving her arms into a X-block right before grabbing at her opponent's upper arm with her own arm to pull him, specifically his gut, abruptly into the knee she sharply swept forward from behind her. Immediately after these motions, she took several backward steps from him into a defensive stance wherein a low block of one of her arms was protectively near her dress side pocket storing the starseed.

This time his words had prompted her to glare at him with an unmasked expression full of emotion but comprising of fury for the most part. However, she held her ground. And even after her adversary had disappeared, somehow she had held back, held back from kicking, punching, flailing, screaming wildly; she held back from unleashing an incomprehensible mess of an outward display of her tangled negative emotions that prodded at her mockingly, that was dug out of her, unearthed from within her by what had transpired.

She took several harsh swallows of breath as she bent her head while one of her arms steadied herself by reaching and placing one palm against the bark of the nearest tree. She briefly sniffled as her shoulders shook with a momentary tremor. And with the back of the hand she removed from being in contact with the tree's bark, she quickly swiped at a tear that had fallen across one cheek. Then, with a sudden stride of motion, she left, taking to branches and rooftops in swiftly distancing herself from the location of dispute.