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Zircon did not like losing. It did not put her in a happy place. The roughly scale-shaped bruise that had lasted for a week and a half on her jaw put her in even less of a happy place. Given that the Destiny City Plague had coincided rather nicely with her injuries, her civilian coworkers simply assumed that she'd been in a wreck of some sort and left it at that. However, her pride had been bruised far more thoroughly than her face, and that wasn't something that healed quite as quickly.

She'd been practicing her building-jumps on her own time, but unfortunately, the only thing that helped was a swift retreat. No, clearly she had underestimated the senshi, and it wasn't something she planned on doing again. She needed guidance, training from one of her betters, but who to ask? There were captains, of course, but after her run-in with Serandite she had to question if that was the type of person she wanted to train under. After all, during the day, Serandite was one of her students.

However, there was a fellow lieutenent among the Crystal staff, if she remembered correctly, and though they'd only spoken in passing, he surely would have a better understanding of how the Negaverse did things, or at least he could point her in the right direction. It was simply a co-worker courtesy, in this case doubly so. Lucky for her, it seemed that not only did Rohan know a thing or two about fighting, but he'd also encountered her previous assailant. They'd agreed to meet in the early evening, just outside of Crystal's dorms, and began their patrolling in silence, Zircon's posture tense and alert as she glanced around for any signs of the opponent.

She followed Rhodizite's steps onto a bridge she normally took to get to her apartment, the streets surprisingly bare. Deciding that she liked the utter silence even less than the effort it took to talk, she turned to her partner, hesitating as she tried to think of something in common to start conversation. "...Tell me more about Sailor Libra," she said finally, deciding that if they were on-the-clock, they might as well talk about work-related matters.

Zircon couldn't help it: at the mention of Sailor Libra, her eyes narrowed, and she thought bitterly to the pain in her jaw. "It would have been helpful to know about the Zodiacs in our general debriefing: I wasn't aware that the senshi had sub-factions to look out for." She'd heard that they were powerful but that they were fragmented and usually worked alone, making them vulnerable. Alone Sailor Libra had been, but vulnerable she hadn't, and at least now Zircon didn't have to consider that it was her own weakness merely at fault. She had gone up against a Zodiac, she told herself, it wasn't her fault. She would have better chances against a normal senshi.

The woman glanced up at a streetlight as they passed underneath it, somewhat uncomfortable with how out in the open they were. She supposed that the boldness was part of the point in luring out something to hunt, but there were things other than senshi roaming the streets these days, things that Zircon would rather not bump into. After all, unless someone had failed to mention that all Negaverse agents had bulletproof skin, she would rather not have any sort of altercation with the National Guardsmen that had been walking the streets as of late.

"Yes, partnering up is a plus," added the lieutenant, who despite her dark thoughts smiled to herself. "It seems that the Queen's initiative has also gone off without a hitch. I can only hope that things bode this well in the future." Zircon was quick to shift the focus of conversation to their more recent successes: that way, she didn't have to focus on less recent failures.

A mild sneer appeared across Rhodizite's features, though it was clear it was not directed at his current partner, "I learned that the hard way. I'd heard something about how they were a tad different from the norm, but didn't realize to what extent until I took on Virgo," the sneer vanished and was replaced with a grimace, "The girl was a foot shorter than me and somehow managed to pick me up while I had my chain wrapped around her and pulled some sort of wrestling move on me, throwing me backwards. It bloody well hurt," while it was true he was ashamed of his failures, he was sharing them with Zircon in... well, apparently some weird sort of way of comforting her.

He wasn't particularly good at communication, and was absolutely horrible when it came down to connecting with people, so the attempt was awkward, but he still tried. Points for trying, "They don't give us a lot of information - you pick up most of it on the field," at the end of the day, he was trying to tell her that it wasn't her fault; she'd gone up against an opponent that was well above current power level, "It is war," he said, his features grim, "Things never bode well in war," it wasn't that he didn't trust his queen; he did, which was why he was where and whom he was. It was just that he did not expect war to be easy. Not in the least. It didn't matter what new ammo they had to their disposal; it would continue to be a difficult battle, because the other side would find some way to retaliate. That was just the way things would always been in his mind.

It was right around then that the not-so-distant stomping caught his attention, and he held out an arm for Zircon to stop at his side, "Shhh... do you hear that?" he took the moment to grasp the chain in a more offensive position and scanned the surroundings, "I'm starting to really hate high heels," if only because he instantly associated them with senshi.

It was not long before the girl caught sight of the noisemakers; she had been close enough to hear bits of their conversation, after all. It looked like two boys. Knowing boys, they were probably up to no good. Zubenelgenubi stepped into view, her hands going to her hips and sneering down her nose at them. Somehow. Normally, she might have mistaken them for drunk teenagers if she had encountered a pair like this. Normally, she might have grouched and griped at them (and maybe hit one in the face for being drunk and out at night) but not for these two up-to-no-good enemy boys.

She surveyed them in silence for a moment, admittedly somewhat more than startled to see actual people. Yet Zube had decided long ago- once you look an animal in the eye, you don't back down. You have to dominate them. Or else they bite you. Not that she thought people would bite her, that was retarded. Unless they were zombies. Zombies would bite her. Regardless of if she was trying to dominate them with her animal magnetism. Her best friend had been trying to teach her that her normal methods of combat wouldn't always work.

Two on one? This was the perfect setup to prove otherwise.

Zubenelgenubi stamped one clunky heel up on the bridge, and said to the other two people, "If you leave now, I won't punish you for being out past curfew."