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It had been a long time since Jadarite had been requested for a mission with someone who was not part of the Argent Industries team. Although, it had also been awhile since she'd been out with any of her teammates. They were much more focused on the office side of things these days.

Perhaps this summons was a good sign, as the commanding officers had noticed that she was branching out in a way that her colleagues were not. Perhaps it was a bad sign. She hadn't submitted reports on just how poorly her last few outings had gone, but she was aware that eyes were everywhere. It was entirely possible that someone had decided she was not to be trusted alone.

Any babysitting was unnecessary, of course. Jada had already analyzed her actions, considered her mistakes, and come to the conclusion that she was needed to be more careful about picking fights and enraging the enemy. She would do her tasks in the shadows for now and focus on her Infiltration work while she trained.

However, she was also not about to complain to anyone about patrolling with this lieutenant.

She kept a neutral, polite expression on her face as she arrived at their meeting point exactly when she was scheduled to. Another woman was already there. Good. At least she was working with someone prompt.

"Good evening," she said, her heels clicking on the sidewalk as she approached. "I'm Lieutenant Jadarite." She extended a hand.

The handshake was firm, the professionalism appreciated. Jadarite gave a carefully calculated smile, one that was approving without being overly friendly.

"I hope you weren't planning on doing anything questionable," she said without breaking eye contact. "We're partners for the night, yes, but I wasn't told that I would need to be your babysitter." Her tone was serious, but as she gave the other woman a closer look, she wasn't overly concerned. Cristobalite was collected, serious, and not a child, which was really all that Jadarite could ask for. There was a twinge of pride, though, at the thought that she might have been charged with looking after someone newer.

At the very least, the higher-ups must not have thought she needed a babysitter, herself.

She did quirk an eyebrow ever so slightly at the questioning of her abilities. "I've been trained in all basic Negaverse duties," she said, the polite smile fading as quickly as it had appeared. She summoned her tablet and squinted at the recent messages. "We're assigned to a basic round of draining and patrol tonight, which is well within my wheelhouse."

She turned her attention back to the other agent. "And you? Any specialties?"

Jadarite pursed her lips. "True. I suppose there are those who think that many of the Negaverse's methods are questionable. I am not one of them." She moved to walk next to Cristobalite, keeping an even pace. "However, it is my job to limit the amount of people who think to question the Negaverse in the first place."

The last thing they needed was police constantly constantly getting called on them, or large news organizations finding out that there was something more to the unrest in Destiny City than an increase in gang activity.

"That doesn't mean I'm squeamish about the realities of war. Our enemies deserve whatever happens to them," she said. The set of her jaw hardened. She did not buy into the legends about space and invasion that went around, but she knew what she had seen with her own eyes. A good portion of the team of the Witzend mission had been wiped out. Mercy was not an option.

"I could care less what happens out of sight or behind closed doors. When I say questionable, I refer to the people who let the power get to their head and start causing scenes or leaving trails of corpses around." She gave the other woman a pointed look. From what she'd seen, she didn't think that was the kind of person she was dealing with right now, but she did not want her to get any ideas. "That's no good for public relations."

Then she shifted back to the formal smile, her tone going more conversational. "Have you looked into SpecOps at all? They could use a few more agents."

"I believe you," said Jadarite, still keeping a careful eye on the crisp way that the other agent so much as walked. This was the type of agent that the Negaverse should really try to find more of. At first glance, she was grounded, mature, and comfortable with the realities of war without edging into flippancy.

She was almost perfect.

Almost. Jadarite's lips twitched into a smug smile upon hearing that she did not know much about the branches.

"SpecOps would be the firmer hand, as you put it," she said, keeping pace with Criss. The were quickly coming into a more populated area, and Jada was careful to check any alleys that they passed for any homeless types or gaggles of smoking teens. There was no luck so far.

"We all have the responsibility of gathering resources, which comes with the risk of engaging the enemy," she said. Speaking of which, with two of them out, they had double the chance of attracting Order's attention, so Jada watched for auras, too, as they walked. "But SpecOps takes care of any," she paused, pursing her lips for a moment, "Particular issues."


She glanced towards another alley, squinting at a figure that turned out to be a trash bag. "I know the leader is called General-Queen Hessonite. She could give you the full spiel."

Jadarite went silent as they approached the abandoned building. She watched the calm but purposeful way that Cris walked, the way that she opened the door so that it didn't creak and looked around as if she was expecting to see something. It became clear in that moment that the other agent knew the territory.

Jada took half a step back, letting Cristobalite take the lead. She was curious what the other woman had found, and about what she was going to do.

Although, as she carefully shouldered through the door and took a look around the building that they had found themselves in, she had some educated guesses.

She did raise an eyebrow at the smell comment, but she didn't make a move to protect her nose in any way. It was true that she was already catching a hint of foul odor, but even if she was squeamish, nobody else needed to know about it.

"Upstairs?" she guessed, eyes flicking around the empty room.

While Jada had her suspicions, she wasn't sure where these people might be in the house, exactly, which meant that she fell into step behind Cris as the other officer made her way up the stairs.

Jadarite was less surprised by the aura. She'd felt it, off in the distance, about when they'd first entered the house, but she'd hoped that maybe it was one of the senshi that did not want to cause any trouble, and they'd be on their way.

There was no luck on that front. The aura was coming towards them, quickly and directly, and by the time Cristobalite had pointed it out, Jada was fairly certain that they had already reached the house. It wasn't the ideal situation. She still wasn't confident in her fighting, but if it was about to come to that, she was glad to have an ally at her side.

She took a look at their surroundings. The stairs that they were standing on, while not in terrible shape considering the state of the house as a whole, were not steady enough that she wanted to fight on them. They were also the only way she saw to get to the second floor.

Jadarite nodded towards the landing above. "We can set up an ambush here. Take the high ground." She took a step forwards, right on the other agent's heels. "Just, quickly."

Jadarite’s eyes fluttered shut as they reached the top step. Although she had several years of experience on the other lieutenant, she had spent most of that time doing things that did not involve tracking senshi while in cramped houses. For an awkward moment, Jada realized that she did not know if the source of the energy was below or above.

Then she heard a footstep, and turned to the other woman with a crisp nod. “Yes. Below,” she said. She stepped forward to the top of the stairs and then to the side, pressing her back to the wall so that she could see her surroundings while being out of the immediate range of any projectiles that happened to be thrown in their direction.

“Unfortunately the auras don’t tell us anything about what type of magic the enemy has,” she said, moving her gaze to lock onto the stairs. There was no reason that they couldn’t pay attention while they got their last bits of strategy in. “It seems this one is stronger than us, though. Careful.”

Her voice had lowered to a whisper, and with that, she went silent.