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It had been some time since Puck had gone out patrolling in Destiny City. A break was needed, and because he could (and because he desperately needed it) he took an extended trip back to London to visit relatives and just be in his hometown. He was there several months, yet even when Rob returned to Destiny City, he wasn't in any hurry to resume patrolling. In fact, it was another couple months before he once more took out his henshin pen and transformed into Sailor Puck.

He smoothed his hand over the fabric of his tunic as he stood in his garden, pausing to finger the sheer sash that now wrapped itself around him and knotted at his hip. Puck hadn't given himself much time to get used to the new outfit before taking off to the UK, so it seemed a bit strange to him. He did like the close-fitting camouflage leggings, though. Much easier to move around in. The whole thing seemed rather a bit fancier than the other outfit, but then he supposed it would, since he was now a Super Sailor.

With a snorted sigh, he realized he was stalling. "Well," he muttered to himself, "enough of this dallying shite. Let's get on with it." He leapt to the roof of the house across the alley, then bounded along the rooftops toward the university district. No time like the present to get reacquainted with the city, was there?

Practically the same moment Puck felt the energy signature of someone aligned with Chaos, he heard the shouted wisecrack. He leapt to the ground and cast about, trying to determine the enemy's location. The stronger it got, though, the less it felt like pure Chaos, like Negaverse agents felt, and more like that one he'd encountered some time ago, what was her name, Mjolnir. What'd she say she was, Dark Mirror Court? That was what Elsa was too, the first guy he'd fought as a senshi. He seemed to attract these Dark Mirror types like a magnet.

"Oi!" he called back, looking around until he spotted the source of the catcall. A guy, didn't look much bigger than he was. Good. "You Dark Mirrors are a mouthy lot, you know that? Though Tarzan ain't far from it." He thought back to the Halloween costume Sid had got him to try on last year, a loincloth and basically nothing else, and he smirked. He'd have to tell her about this new moniker he'd gotten thrown at him.

Puck strolled toward the Dark Mirror senshi, pointedly looking him up and down. A hood with ears, what looked like a tail, a mishmash of colors… "What's your angle then, mate? Confusion?"

"Puck, Senshi of the Woods." The Super stopped and crossed his arms as well, returning the wry expression. "So maybe the senshi of wild men too. The woods are wild and deep, after all, and who knows what the hell you'll find there, yeah?" He thought back to his own world, the moon Puck, with its dense, dark forests. He'd certainly not known what was lurking there when he first arrived. It'd been awhile; he'd have to go back again, soon.

He cocked his head as the young Dark Mirror explained himself. "Tricksters, eh? That makes sense, given your outfit. Reckon I'm kind of a trickster too, bein' a Puck an' all." With a chuckle he added, "We're bros, mate. Or something." More like something -- this kid was a Dark Mirror senshi, after all, and therefore the enemy. But who was the bigger trickster? He'd probably have to give it to Sinope, since he was actually the Senshi of Slyness.

"Peter Pan?" Puck laughed and spread his arms. "Yeah, I reckon I do look a bit like the Pan. Kinda daft-looking if you think about it, and kinda impractical. Though you rather got the short end of it, didn't you, with the gauzy crap hangin' off you? Do all you Dark Mirrors have to wear that s**t? It looks alright on the birds, but not so much on the blokes. An' no, I ain't the Fashion Police. Just callin' 'em as I see 'em."

Puck didn't know what the young Dark Mirror had done, but he narrowed his eyes at Sinope. Did the kid somehow know that his magic was really incredibly lame and not at all related to trickery? Some bloody great trickster he was, Puck decided after listening to Sinope reel off lore about his namesakes and related tricksters -- more information than Puck himself knew about them. He felt annoyed and embarrassed, and gradually getting angry at himself. Which meant that Sinope was likely to feel the fallout of that.

"What are you on about?" he growled at Sinope. "Are all you Dark Mirrors tricksters? How d'you know what kind of magic I can do? You some kind of mind-reader or something, is that your power?" He approached the kid, hands balled into fists. It was a shame he'd have to beat Sinope up -- the Dark Mirror senshi seemed like a cool guy, and much like Mjolnir had, he was making the Dark Mirror Court sound more like they were neutral parties leaning toward the side of Order.

...But, Puck pondered, should he just beat him up, or should he use his magic on the kid? If Sinope knew what his magic was, he might dodge it, and that would render it useless. Maybe if he did it fast… But he'd still end up angry and embarrassed at the patch of forest that would suddenly pop up around Sinope. ******** lame.

Still, it was worth a shot. Stopping his advance on the Dark Mirror, Puck pointed at him and said, "Wild Copse."

Puck had never used his Super magic before. He watched the undergrowth spring up as it always did with his basic magic, although over a much broader area, but then trees shot upwards into the air, proper leafy trees. They formed a cage around Sinope, and between that and the slippery forest floor the young Dark Mirror was effectively pinned. With a grin Puck watched Sinope's expression change from cocksure to placating to downright fearful. Nice.

Then the kid said his name. His REAL name, his powered-down full first name. It didn't occur to Puck that, given the previous conversation about tricksters, that Sinope was referring to Robin Goodfellow, the character Puck's other name from his favorite Shakespeare play, A Midsummer Night's Dream. In the heat of anger, the reference went right over his head. How did he know? It must have been some kind of Dark Mirror magic. Maybe they were all mind readers.

Hands ballling back up into fists, Puck stormed over to the copse, carving a path through the underbrush. Approaching the trees, he shoved one arm between two of them and grabbed the front of Sinope's fuku. He pulled the Dark Mirror senshi toward him, smushing the kid's face against the bark of the trees.

"How the ******** do you know my name?"

Puck listened to Sinope explain himself, still glaring at the other senshi. The kid's words sunk in and made a surprising amount of sense, given their previous discussion. He felt a little bad now for automatically jumping to conclusions, that Sinope possessed magic capable of reading his mind and learning his real name. Maybe these Dark Mirror types couldn't read minds after all.

…Learning his real name. With a cold sinking feeling Puck realized that in his anger he'd inadvertently revealed his real name to Sinope. s**t. Swallowing down the panic, he continued to snarl at the young Dark Mirror, despite no longer really being angry with him; he didn't want Sinope to know how freaked out he was. "Okay, I'll buy that excuse. Maybe. You ain't done anything to make me doubt you. In fact, you've been downright civil. Interesting conversation counts for a lot, in my estimation. And you've proven that you're not necessarily a bad guy, despite being a Dark Mirror senshi."

As Puck spoke, his magic dissipated, leaving him standing there wiith his fist tangled in the front of Sinope's fuku and his face a few inches away from the kids. "But if I ever hear you breathe my name to anyone," he growled, "trickster or no, I'm going to use you to mop the pavement. Are we clear on this?"

Puck held on to Sinope's fuku a few moments longer, as if to make a point, before turning the Dark Mirror loose and stepping back a couple of paces. The snarl faded into a scowl, though, as he listened to Sinope's promise and pondered his words. The Dark Mirror senshi he'd met before, Mjolnir, had left him no concerns over whether or not to believe what she said. And she'd said that they were not a threat, that they were not the enemy. There was, therefore, no reason not to trust what Sinope was saying, especially since it was remarkably similar in tone to what Mjolnir had told him.

"Right then," Puck finally said. "I suppose I can believe you. None of you lot have given me any cause to doubt you. Reckon you're no different." He eyed the ginger-haired young man. "And yeah, as you've gathered already, I've met one or two of you Dark Mirrors. You haven't proven yourselves to be a threat -- at least not yet. Despite how odd you may read. It's hard to trust with this whole war shite going on, yeah?" A small lopsided smile quirked his mouth. "Hard to know which side someone's really on if they ain't obvious about it."

Puck thought for a moment, but was quick to answer. "It's given me the ability and means to protect people. From monsters like youma and the Negaverse -- whom I count as monsters, for what they do and how they go about it. See, I may seem like a misanthrope on the surface, and given my name one might think I'd like nothing more than to go around pulling pranks on people. An' that's as may be," he shrugged with a tilt of his head and a small grin. "But if everyone had their starseed yanked or was turned into a pawn of the Negaverse, or even a youma, who'd be left to prank, yeah?"

He met Sinope's hazel eyes with a direct gaze. "I still don't know for sure what you lot are on about. The other Dark Mirror I've spoken to said you were into protecting people too. If that's really the case, then I got no problem with you. If by 'protecting' you mean turn 'em into something other than what they are, though, then maybe we do have problems. BUT." Pointing at the Dark Mirror's chest, he grinned again. "I'd need to know more before I decide whether or not you people are a threat."

Crossing his arms over his chest, he tilted his head and looked Sinope up and down. "So, let's turn this about. What keeps you in the Dark Mirror Court?"