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Ever since her awakening, Gunn had been rather hesitant about transforming again. It wasn't because she was particularly cowardly; she thought it was be pretty neat to be a costumed warrior. Nor was she antsy about getting caught, because she'd been seen by any number of her classmates and no one had said a word yet. The problem wasn't her secret identity or time or even habit, because she was usually up until four and her roommate hadn't yet recovered from her coma.

The very first time she went out after setting that poor little cat on fire, she encountered a monster too big for her poor physical combat skills to conquer. She really had to get teammates, she thought; people who weren't too scared of their attack to use it, people whose attacks didn't set things on fire, who could actually pick and choose targets. You know, rather than just shouting out your attack and hoping against hope that it actually took effect on something other than a little kitten.

(Would she ever get over that? Probably never.)

She also had to figure out her attack, because it was seriously disconcerting to realize that you were the reason a freestanding convenience store was on fire. Well, it wasn't really her fault, because how could she control the death throes of an enormous bear monster? And she had to get used to the fact that she was supposed to run from the fires after starting them, because standing there in full sailor soldier regalia while watching something burn was... really, really questionable. Extremely questionable. In fact, that might be why the first cop to respond to the fire alarm was heading her way, a weird look in his eyes.

Gunn put a hand over her mouth, looked left then right. At least the security footage would have burned, too? No one could prove anything, could they? s**t, she thought.

Her first instinct was to hide behind something, but the rather fluffy skirt in a bright orange made that a bit of a pipe dream right away. The orange hair made it a little hard to conceal herself, too. Besides, she'd already been seen, and he was already talking to her, and everyone knew running made you look guilty.

So she did an odd side-to-side shuffle, her sandals making a tup tup! sound against the pavement. Normally this would have amused her, but against the backdrop of a sparking, popping fire--one that she started--it didn't even make her crack a smile. She stopped when she was just about in front of the cop, knotted her hands in the orange-lined edges of her hood.

"There was a monster," she said, uncertainly, chewing her lip. "Aaaand it was on fire?" It couldn't have been more obvious that she was lying, her head tilted down to stare at his shiny shoes. "Aaaand I was running away from it, and I... stayed here because...?"

A glance at his face showed that he really didn't believe that bullshit, so she amended with a glance at the burning building as a fire suppression system finally took effect, "Well, I kind of. Set it on fire. The monster, not the building."

Her hands dropped to her sides, her eyes remaining on his feet. "Well, there really was a monster. But it wasn't on fire. It was kind of roaming North Avenue, but there's a commuter train that comes through that station at twelve thirty, right? So I couldn't leave it, so I jumped it, and kind of it ran, and I tried to set it on fire so it'd get eaten away and die, but that kind of didn't work."

A girder collapsed in the convenience store. She watched the sparks, her face flushing with guilt and embarrassment. "Anyway, the monster did get set on fire, but it wasn't like other monsters that just would wither and die. It just kept going, you know? And it ran into that convenience store," pointing directly at it, "And then suddenly, woosh, it went up. I didn't mean to do it, it was an accident, really."

She looked miserably embarrassed, but then, it was a miserably embarrassing story.

"I'm kind of new at superheroing," she explained.

For what was actually only a minute or two, but seemed like at least three hours, he looked like he didn't believe her. She resembled, at that moment, a spooked animal--a deer, perhaps, caught in headlights and ready to bolt at the slightest provocation. The rigid way her shoulders hunched forward dissolved when she heard he believed her, but the guard was back up at get into the cop car.

"What the hell, how do I know you're not going to book me," she cried, scowling; "You're a cop and that's so not something I want to be doing--"

But when she heard the sirens approaching, her shoulders hunched again and she clenched her teeth, slanting a frustrated glance towards his car. No way to get out without being seen, and he'd surely report he saw a sailor soldier and she might have started the fire. He'd heard her say she'd done it! So really, her only choice was to get in the damn car. Even if he booked her--she could confuse everyone, probably, by dropping back into her civilian self.

The decision had been made for her, anyway, and she only glanced back at the police officer once as she slipped into his car and laid on the floor, staring up at the ceiling. Blue and red light (the first responders?) flashed across the black fabric. How often were these cars cleared out, anyway?

The only thing that kept Gunn from dozing was the fact that if she did, she might drop the transformation. Then she knew, from personal assumption, it'd be pretty obvious who she was--or she'd at least be recognizable, which would be terrible. Being arrested for arson was not her idea of an "amazing time" and it certainly wouldn't help her get into any colleges.

What the ******** was wrong with her powers, anyway? Every sailor soldier she'd ever heard about always had powers that were destructive, but could definitely be directed and never lasted more than a few moments. She never heard of a senshi who couldn't control their powers or who had such... such... long-lasting effects. At least no one but this cop had seen her, and at least she wasn't being booked...

Was she?

Her thoughts kept on in that vein, rather like a dog chasing its tail. Probably if she'd thought about it, she could have escaped out the other side of the car while everyone else made like angry hornets around the burning convenience store. She didn't, though, and it felt like years and years before the driver's side door of the cop car opened. Gunn tensed, closing her blue eyes rather tightly; what if it wasn't the officer? But when she cracked one eye open, it was Officer Smith's head she saw, telling her to stay down a little longer.

Okay. Worked for her.

"So I'm in trouble," she said after a minute. "What kind of trouble am I in?"

She took a deep breath, sliding out of the car without taking Kaden's hand. Then she sat down on the grass, stretching the kinks out of her back. The truth, okay. She would tell it this time, she told herself; he wasn't going to arrest her, he was going to let her leave whenever she didn't want to talk to him anymore.

Starting from the beginning, she said, "You know how senshi have, like... magical attacks? Mine takes fires that're already there and sort of makes them... explode? It makes them bigger. And one of those monsters popped up and it was already on fire, and it was near that building." Her blue eyes were directed up in the general direction of his face, a little embarrassed by what she was saying. "And I wasn't thinking when I saw it, and... and I used my magic. The fire got bigger and it caught the canopy in front of the building? and then I punched the monster and it died."