Welcome to Gaia! ::

Well, this was new. A whole new perspective, and new powers... new aims. She'd been right that the senshi were a problem, but she had had no idea about the scope of it. They were far more prevalent than she had known, than she had even guessed at. As luck would have it, she hadn't run into any so far... to know it. If she had, they'd managed to slide right past her, with her none the wiser. She didn't think they'd managed yet, but she could be wrong. That wasn't why she was out here, though.

Ametrine liked to be out at night. So far, no real hunts, precisely. They were more like the play hunts of a young cat, first testing its claws. She was not allowed to hunt alone. It was... good practice. There was less of a chance of being seen at night by, well, anyone, and it tested her abilities. Prowling around the streets of Destiny City was probably not the best for a new Lieutenant, but she wasn't exactly trolling for star seeds. Not yet.

No, instead she was testing out her abilities, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, making her landings as soft as possible, and padding along when it seemed foolish to jump. People didn't look up, she'd learned. It went against instinct, when they expected the real threats to be down on the ground with them. They were wrong, of course, but how could they know that?

Silently, she took in the fresh, cold air, and paused, tensing to listen to the night sounds. Were there footsteps in the next alley? ... Maybe. She slunk along to a vantage point, crouching to see if she could make out anything below. Nothing. Nothing yet, at least. What she couldn't see, perhaps she could hear. Step, step... stop. She turned swiftly, hearing something on the roof. ... Or maybe that had been the wind. Grasping her pitchfork tightly, with the grip of someone used to holding a baseball bat or a hockey stick, she waited.

A cat. A %#@&ing housecat had her guard up? Pah, she needed to take a lesson from Sue. Cats were not a %$#^ing problem. Not her problem, anyway. And not even her imaginary quarry. Shrugging slightly, she turned again, and leaped from that roof to the next, sliding down until she reached another good vantage point. There was a street light up ahead, providing something to see by, something ... something which would light up her. Clumsy of her. She shifted, moving behind the chimney to watch. Now, who exactly would be out so late? Not a hooker tonight, surely. It was too cold by far.

"Talent," Ametrine spoke back to the hint of red amid the shadow, "-- and practice," she admitted. No sense in coming off overly cocky when she didn't know who she was addressing. Confident, yes. Competent, yes. But she didn't want to make enemies just yet... not when she wasn't allowed to hunt alone. "These heels aren't high... they have good traction." They were sturdy boots, in all honesty, certainly so when compared to her usual choice. He had jumped up onto the roof. That suggested to her that he had power too. Had there been mention of a red-haired-- no, there were too many redheads. It was impossible to keep track of them based on description alone.

"And how did you follow me up here? Talent?" Slightly (and privately) chagrined that he'd managed to catch sight of her, Ametrine tilted her head to the side, and tried to make out more details beyond the red. She thought she caught a hint of... some pale color, maybe green or blue? It was impossible to tell in the present lighting. ... No, maybe... maybe she could make out more. Green. She was fairly sure that his eyes were green. Where had she seen eyes like that before? ... But no matter. She couldn't place the resemblance. It didn't matter, anyhow. She was more concerned about keeping up with her training.

He was better at this than she was. The jumping thing. Graceful to a fault... but there was a sense of danger to him that she couldn't quite mimic just yet. And anyway, she didn't want to copy anyone. She wanted to be her own brand of danger. She straightened from her crouch, standing before him, quietly proud, and self contained. There was no way to conceal that, and she wasn't sure that she wanted to. Presenting a weak front seemed like a very, very bad idea for whatever reason.

Then again, she supposed that a predator could recognize another, more skilled predator. "You're good at this," she observed, head tilting upward slightly as she surveyed the shadow man. She wasn't. Not yet. She was getting better, but better wasn't enough. She wanted to hone away the inherent clumsiness that had bothered her from time to time. Maybe she could learn what he knew, if he was inclined to teach it... assuming they were even on the same side. The senshi could defy the laws of physics quite impressively, she'd heard. Maybe he was one of them. ... Ha. Maybe. Unlikely, but then, maybe senshi came in darker colors too.

"Sir," Ametrine said, the words floating to her lips automatically. She inclined her head with a certain degree of deference-- not so much as she would show Charonite, or Queen Beryl, certainly, but enough to be respectful. It was instinctive, and strange... as Lt. Ametrine did not have a sense of group feeling with the Negaverse yet, in truth, or of being at the bottom of the totem pole, officer-wise. It was simply that as a hunter, she recognized him as a superior hunter. Or at least, that was what she thought might account for the change. Perhaps it was something that came naturally when one joined any service. Her heels clicked together smartly, and she stood almost at attention, never losing eye contact with him once.

"It is... that is true, but I have worked to improve my ability to use it. I would be a fool to take such a gift for granted, and not exercise it." She watched him warily, not inclined to make a hasty move. She didn't want to antagonize a man that she knew to be her superior, that she sensed was like a tiger to her panther, dangerous and supple. He knew this territory. He was old to it, experienced. He knew where to walk, and where to leap... he knew where the men with guns lurked in wait. She didn't, yet... and even just the swipe of his paw would show her a failure. That was unacceptable. "I will have to learn to be good." She had to. ... And she was smart enough not to say that she was already good.

He hadn't asked her name, or offered his own. It would be arrogant to offer her name and rank, as he would be able to tell right off that she was lower ranked than he, and there was no sense in banding her name about. Why would a captain care to know the name of a new recruit? "I would like to learn to be as good as you are, sir... or close." Close, because she couldn't presume to be as good as he was. Not yet. She was still fresh from the den, so to speak, from her mother's milk. She didn't know the lay of the land, and she didn't know the good places to hunt. No more, she decided. No more volunteering information. She watched him, orange eyes bright with curiosity, showing respect with her posture, but not fear. As good as it might be to fear the captain, she could not.

"How could I know the full potential of my abilities, sir?" She was a Lieutenant. The lowest of the low, among the officers. ... Not scum, not that, but close. She wasn't cannon fodder, but she was damn near close. "Lieutenant Ametrine, sir. Newly recruited." Obviously. It was so painfully obvious to Ametrine that she was a new recruit that she couldn't help but think that for someone like him, someone seasoned, it was like a brick to the head. "I'll do what I have to." To survive, was the unspoken addition. And to succeed. She was damn determined to succeed, to improve. By all that was holy (or unholy), she was going to achieve her goals.

Ametrine went to the equivalent of parade rest... not at ease, but not as starched straight as attention. She kept a firm grip on her weapon, uncertain when they might meet senshi. "I don't want to be coddled. I have had enough of that. I want to be active." He wasn't curious, she told herself. He didn't want to know what that meant. She wasn't going to tell him unless he asked. Even then, she would be careful of it. ... She hadn't meant to flatter him, really. It wasn't flattery so much as truth as she saw it. As new as she was, how could that not be how she saw it?

"Little to nothing, sir." Another admission which under normal circumstances would have made Ametrine grind her teeth. She hated admitting to weakness, and informing him that she didn't know about gathering star seeds was admitting to a weakness, even if it was one that she herself could not correct alone. ... Not without doing the very thing she'd been ordered not to, which was hunt. She followed his gaze to the streets, wondering who might be traversing them now. A hooker, as she had thought earlier? Or maybe some kid who didn't know what was good for him? ... Or her. A gang, perhaps. Civilians could be useful... for star seeds. Also less of a challenge to a new recruit like her.

Hunt.

He'd just given her permission to hunt. Hell, he'd even gift-wrapped it for her. Good. Ametrine had been waiting, not quite willing to go against the orders not to hunt alone, had been chafing under that restriction. With the words out of his mouth, he couldn't take them back, and she wasn't going to give him the chance to rethink it. "Yes sir," she said, her focus shifting from him to the streets below. She was just sure that that hooker really was there, that she hadn't dreamed him or her up. If she focused, she could make out movement below them, could almost pick out textures. Not quite.

Crouching low, she sprang, trying to light softly on the ground. ... It wasn't quite a successful attempt, but she came close. Certainly, she was quieter than could have been expected from a normal human being. Whatever. She'd get better at this. The woman on the dimly lit corner looked up, startled. ... Yes. Yes, this was what she had been waiting for, what her blood had been calling for. She kept to the shadows, not quite letting the woman see her face. "Who are you?" The hooker called, fear caking her tone thinly, and that was just... perfection.

Ametrine liked that fear sound. "Wh-Who's there? Show your face! I have a gun!" A little chuckle curled up from her throat, and she paced toward the woman, pressing her advantage, coming up behind her. It was a close thing, then. The woman was going for her purse-- Ametrine couldn't let her do that. Taking a low swipe, she took the purse in her hand, and looped the long handle over the woman's head, pulling tight. ... Trouble was, the woman was panicked, which meant she had adrenaline, and that gave her extra strength. She struggled in Ametrine's arms, as the newly made Negaverse agent began to cut off her air.

Unable to resist, even when the woman's flailing arms caught her in the gut and face, Ametrine toyed with her, bringing her hand delicately up to her chest. "You have something I want," she said beside the hooker's ear. When the woman tried to pay her off, tried to offer up her goods-- Ametrine didn't need to pay for that, thank you-- she laughed. "Not that, darling," she purred, plunging her hand beneath the woman's low-cut shirt. "Now calm down. If you're very, very good, this won't take a moment." There was no calming down. The woman jerked, nearly dislodging the Lieutenant, and that earned her a harder tug on the strap.