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Puck glowered first at Chara, then at the mob of youma hissing and snarling at them. He had absolutely no idea what his magic did, of course -- the opportunity to use it simply hadn't come up. He'd been able to defeat his foes with his fists and headbutts alone. That likely wasn't going to be the case this time.

"I dunno, let's find out," he growled, then before the young smart-aleck senshi could come back with some snarky retort, he pointed a finger at the little monsters and said as if by instinct, "Wild Thicket!"

Instantly a patch of what looked like dense forest undergrowth appeared around a good portion of the youma horde, encircling them with bracken and saplings and other plants that made it difficult for them to see the two senshi, let alone attack them. The remaining youma looked startled at the sudden disappearance of their companions, letting out whistling little whimpers of confusion.

"That's what my magic does?" Puck exclaimed in disappointment. That wasn't kick-a** at all! Immediately he changed his tune to make it appear like he knew all along what his magic did. "Yeah, that's what my magic does," he nodded, trying to sound confident in front of Chara. "Now while we got some of them trapped, let's get the others!"

Puck ignored Chara's insults and focused on the remaining youma. "I don't know," he confessed. "Not long I would guess. So shut the ******** up and kill some of them!"

Turning to face the small creatures, he let fly with a healthy kick, catching one in the head. Another kick and the thing turned to dust. No, they weren't tough at all, if he could kill one with a kick -- they were just numerous. One of them snarled and leapt at him, attempting to bite his arm. Catching it by the throat with one hand, he punched it repeatedly until it too dusted.

This was going to be slow-going, and the remaining youma seemed to be getting over their distress and focusing on their attackers, beady little eyes glowing and rows of teeth bared. He needed something else to fend them off and destroy them.

Then he remembered the rake in his garden! Leaping back over the fence, he quickly retrieved it and returned (despite how tempting it was to abandon Chara to fend them off alone). "There, you little bastards," he snarled, swinging the implement in front of him and taking out a couple of the youma. "Ha, we'll have them beat in no time now!"

Puck ignored Chara's quavering remark about leaving him to fend off the foxy youma by himself and concentrated on taking out as many of the little bastards as he could with his rake. The two senshi were making great headway with the horde of monsters, their numbers dwindling rapidly as more and more of them were dusted.

Then Puck's magic corral of forest undergrowth disappeared, releasing the trapped youma back to their kin.

"Oh s**t," Puck muttered in irritation. And here things had been going great.

The newly-freed youma whimpered and leapt about as they rejoined the others, seemingly forgetting about the senshi. "Right," he called over to Chara. "They're not paying any attention to us. We can take care of the whole lot of them. Ready?" He didn't wait to see if the other guy was set or not. "Now!"

And into the throng of youma he waded, swinging his rake like a scythe.

With a final swipe of the rake, Puck took out the last of the little foxy youma that stood in front of him, sending them to a glittery dusty end. He took a deep breath and let it out in a relieved sigh that there appeared to be nothing else coming for them. "Yeah, well, there were a bloody awful lot of them, weren't there," he said to Chara, tossing the rake back over the fence into his yard. And there had been, more than he'd thought.

But they had defeated them! And they hadn't gotten bitten!

Approaching the smaller senshi, he clapped him on the shoulder with a small smile. "You did good, kid," he acknowledged with a nod. "You're a pretty good fighter. Pretty resourceful, picking up the hoe like that."

"Puck, of the Woods. So you were close with the trees guess." The blond senshi noted Chara's body tensing and removed his hand from the youth's shoulder. He knew he wouldn't want to be touched if he was feeling prickly. Though with Chara, it seemed like "prickly" was the default. Along with "salty." Couldn't blame the kid for having an attitude problem, not with having to wear an outfit like that and fling little chocolate bombs as an attack. He wondered if Chara was this prickly and salty powered down.

"Yeah, I guess my attack was fairly useful in the end," Puck conceded with a shrug. He still wished it was something more kickarse, but it seemed to be a pretty good defensive power to have. "I can't wait to try it on something bigger." Like a Negaverse agent.

As far as patrolling nearby… He had to think fast and come up with a convincing lie. "Patrolling nearby? Yeah, well, I was fairly nearby, like maybe a mile away. I felt the little ******** in the area and came to check it out. I usually do patrol this area, though, so I'm quite familiar with it." He hoped that was good enough for the kid to buy it. "I, uh, seen the bloke who owns this garden," he added. "He's really proud of it. Good job we kept those little bastards from destroying it." That last bit wasn't a lie.

Puck would take praise where he could get it, and he smiled at the backhanded compliment Chara gave him. That was probably the best he was going to get out of him. "Chara's not a very badass name either, but you can certainly kick some arse for a kid," he replied in his own backhanded way. He really did think Chara was a resourceful, aggressive kid who could definitely hold his own in battle.

"Yeah, I heard about it. And you're right, I would have only been useful for punching things." He listened to the kid recount how he fought a general in the youma-possessed subway incident, and his eyebrow went up, as did his estimation for Chara's arse-kicking abilities. "A general, eh? That's no joke right there." The kid stuck his face right in Puck's, damaged eye and all, and Puck grimaced a bit. "Crikey. You're lucky you came out of that in one piece. No telling what that general could have done to you besides ruin your eye."

He puffed up a little inside at Chara's gushing over his garden. Yeah, he was damn proud of it, half-wild as it was. He really needed to tend to it more, he noted to himself. Maybe the kid was the impetus to get that going. "It's a little hard to just walk up to some bloke and tell him you saved his garden from being ravaged by monsters, yeah," he grinned. "But I bet if you're sneaky you could watch him work and learn some tips that way. I've seen him out and about in the morning hours -- not stupid early, but early enough. You've got school and all, I reckon, but on the weekends you could certainly come and spy on him." He knew with the weirdnesses of transformation Chara wouldn't recognize him as Puck

"You're definitely not stupid," he agreed. He was actually coming to like this smart-mouthed little s**t. "We should probably get going -- I have my patrol to finish." He stuck out his hand. "Nice meeting you, Chara. I hope our paths cross again."

"Hopefully it won't be!" Puck waved after Chara then jumped back over the fence (just missing the rake he'd tossed over there, thank goodness) and then to the roof of his house. Once he was sure that the kid was gone, he leapt down to the side and in the safety of the shadows powered down.

Trudging back into his house, Rob heaved a sigh of relief. That could have gone so much more badly -- those little buggers could have torn up his garden, for one. For another, they probably could have gnawed their way through the door to his parents' house and done some damage not only to the house, but to them. Those things had really nasty-looking teeth. He shuddered at the thought. They were little and fox-like, but they were still youma after all.

He headed for the kitchen and a stiff drink, kind of hoping that he would run into the kid again.