Captain Painite was eager to meet up with her ‘minion’. She had never actually trained anyone before. Granted, Zanazziite was more than capable, and certainly could take care of herself already, but she had not worked with Painite before, and they had to make sure they knew each other inside and out. The training she had in mind was a good old fashioned spar, to see how Zan liked to fight, where she needed protection or defense, and how they might work together. She hoped Zan would be picking up the same information of Painite.

So they would be flawless when they were pulling off a caper, clearly.

She was waiting in a quiet area of the park tonight, not wanting to fight on top of her usual meeting place, the theatre, just in case they were too loud or they did some damage. There was a play going on there this week, and she wasn’t sure if anyone would be inside doing late night tech. After all, that was usually what she did for shows, so it wasn’t unheard of to think someone else might be burning the midnight oil, trying to get a set up, or a lighting cue just right.

Tech week was always the worst.

Mr. Saddles, or perhaps the Spirit of Mr. Saddles as she was debating renaming her weapon, was tucked away in his subspace pocket for now. She was waiting in the middle of an open field, sitting on a conveniently placed rock form that was actually a piece of ‘modern art’ set there by some big wig thinking to improve the park’s appeal. It would probably be prudent to assume that, somewhere in the field, Painite had already laid a trap for Zanazziite to find. One way or the other.

Zanazziite was excited to spar with her captain. She didn’t have much experience in fighting past flailing around with her antlers and trying to hit someone. It wasn’t an effective strategy, she just happened to get lucky a lot of the time.

Bright violet eyes were staring out from inside a bush at the edge of the field. Being inside the bush didn’t bother her so much; she had spent a lot of time in bushes when she was following the librarian around. From her hiding spot she could see her Captain sitting on a rock, her back to her. She was tempted to run out and just attack blindly, but she knew Painite was smarter than that. There had to be some trick or trap somewhere.

Her eyes scanned the field, taking inventory. There was the rock Painite was sitting on, a clump of little white flowers she didn’t know the name of, and a stick or two. What would a trap look like? She had no idea.

After another moment of indecision she finally decided that she would just sneak out there and try to sneak up on her. Hopefully she wouldn’t run into any traps, but if she did she’d do her best to avoid them. Slowly she crept out of the bush, trying to approach Painite as quietly as she could.

Painite was humming to herself, waiting patiently. She should have brought a gameboy, or something, to pass the time. She wasn’t much on handheld gaming, though. Or really, the recent trends. She had a Nintendo and a Super Nintendo, which provided her all the fun she wanted. She liked the Gameboy series, though, because they often released classic looking games, and pixel heavy ones.

She very much enjoyed those. Nostalgic value, as much as they were good games. Still, the NES and SNES held her true love, and she would never be without them.

Closing her eyes, she checked to see if she could feel anything nearby. She felt a power signature behind her, and imagined that was her Lieutenant sneaking up. She smiled, glad to see, at least, that Zan hadn’t gone the direct route. Not that it would really matter.

Hidden in the grass were a variety of play things, from a bag Painite had sitting in front of her by the rock. Farthest away from the rock she had laid her own brand of landmines, which were just rigged mouse traps. Simple was often effective, and unexpected surprises were great, too. She waited to hear if any of those went off, or if Zan missed them and moved to the ‘second circle’ of traps she had ready. In classic Team Rocket style, she had dug some pot holes. Not enough for a whole body to fall into, but certainly a leg or a foot, depending on which one was found.

Painite had a lot of spare time on her today, it seemed.

Zanazziite hadn’t gotten far before she stepped on a mousetrap, in her surprise she couldn’t stop from crying out. She attempted to move away from it, which just resulted in her setting off another one. The traps had her dancing, trying to get away from them. Any element of surprise she had was now gone, as she spun around like an idiot.

Finally making her way out of the mousetraps, Zan ran for her Captain. Now that she couldn’t surprise her she only had brute force left as an option. Unfortunately for her she ran straight into a pot hole, her leg getting caught. The seventeen year old fell forwards, gasping as the wind was knocked out of her.

Pushing herself onto her elbows she looked up at Painite. ”I didn’t do too good at the sneaking did I, Boss?” She laughed and then got to her feet. Even though she’d been outsmarted by traps, she still had a chance to prove herself when it came to actually fighting.

Painite grinned. She heard the snap and the yelp to follow. Looking over her shoulder, she tilted her head and watched as Zan started setting off the all the mousetraps around her, trying not to laugh out loud because of it. It truly was a beautiful moment, though. It had taken about an hour to set those all up and distribute them around her, so to see them all snapping now, in a wondrous rhythm, was almost majestic.

And certainly worth the effort.

She stood on the rock, not jumping down from it because she didn’t want to set off or fall into any of the little surprises she had left for Zan.

“Not too good, no. I think I heard you once or twice,” Painite said, stooping to offer her a helping hand up. She watched Zan keenly, though the Lieutenant seemed to get up without any trouble. She hadn’t hurt her leg in the pot hole, at least, which was good. “It’s always a good idea to keep an eye out for just about anything. If it looks too safe, chances are good that there’s probably a trap waiting. Or maybe just something you need to be aware of. Even if you’re not fighting someone like me, someone who doesn’t use traps, they might be more aware of the environment around them than you are, and use it to their advantage.”

She smirked, summoning her staff.

“But now we can pretend you did sneak up on me, and we’ve got a fight on our hands.”

Zan didn’t see the hand that was offered to her until she had already gotten up. Instead of taking it then she just smiled at her Captain as she brushed her dress off. ”Yeah, I need to work on being sneakier.” She nodded listening to Painite’s words, committing them to memory. It was all good advice, and advice that she needed. ”Be aware of your surroundings, got it.” She smiled widely, glad to be learning something.

When the staff came out Zan got excited. This is what she really wanted to learn to do. Her own antlers were summoned, and she raised them, ready to defend. But then she thought about it, being on the defense all the time wouldn’t make her learn anything. So instead of just waiting for Painite to attack her, she sprung forwards. She struck out with one antler, trying to hit the older woman in the torso.

Painite decided in that moment that she loved being able to teach, and being listened to. Sure, she had her improve class, but most of the time the people in it either weren’t there to learn, were there to just have fun, or already knew anything she could teach. While she adored the few and far between that came to actually pick up some lessons in life through theatre, it just wasn’t enough.

This? This was much more awesome.

She had seen the antlers before, of course, but she took special note of them now. They looked very sturdy, and definitely like something she did not want to get hit by.

“We’ll not hold back: we can pick up some energy if we need it, but I want to see what you can do, no hold’s barr-oop!”

She brought her staff around to defend herself, catching the antler between its horns with the thin staff and twisting as if to wrench the weapon free. She noted that Zan had an advantage in some battles because she had two weapons to work with, but it also left her more vulnerable in other areas. She would have to wait and see what kind of methods Zan had already developed while fighting.


Zan felt the hit reverberate down her arm as antler and staff met. The twist surprised her and she had no chance to even try and keep a hold on it before the antler went spiraling out of her grasp. Her eyes were wide as she watched it fly. She’d never been disarmed quite like that.

Remembering they were still fighting and she wasn’t supposed to hold back she turned her attention on Painite. Shifting her grip she held onto her remaining antler with both hands. Lunging forwards again she struck out, swinging the antler like she would a baseball bat, going for her toso again. She held on tighter this time, ready in case she tried to spin the weapon out of her hand again.

Painite let out a triumphant ‘ah ha!’ when she managed to wrestle the antler away from Zanazziite’s grip.

Of course, now she was off balance, and had to recover from the awkward hand grip she now had on her staff from the way she had turned it. She saw the antlers being swung at her and couldn’t exactly dodge, and she couldn’t get her staff over in time to pull the same trick twice. Instead, the hit connected and she sprawled to the ground, rolling to gain her feet as quickly as she could. A mouse trap snapped at her but she ignored it.

Gripping her staff like a lance, she lunged at Zan straight on. Time to see what the Lieutenant could do for defense. And not just because she was sore from that last hit and didn’t want to do it again. She was trying to force Zan’s hand, push her into defense by posing a dangerous threat. Being run through by a pointy stick was probably threat enough.

She hadn’t expected her antler to hit, she had expected Painite to block her like she had before. So when her antler did sink in to the Captain’s side she nearly dropped it in surprise. ”Oh my goodness! I am so sorry!” Zan started to lean down, wanting to help her up. She knew they were sparring and she was supposed to be going all out, but it was different actually watching Painite get knocked down.

And then Painite was lunging at her. Eyes wide she scrambled back, trying to get away from the spear. She didn’t fancy being skewered on Mr. Saddles. She did the first thing she could think of and tried to hit the spear away with her antler. Eyes stared at Painite, trying to figure out her next attack. Getting close would be dangerous when her spear was pointed outwards. She could throw her antler at the Captain, but it was her last one and she didn’t want to be without it.

Her eyes went back to the spear, and getting an idea she quickly tucked her antler under one arm, reaching out to wrap both hands around the shaft of the spear. She tugged as hard as she could trying to take the weapon, or at least set Painite off balance.

Painite looked up at her in surprise, shaking her head and grinning, though she was trying to look very serious about their training match. It wasn’t supposed to be two friends sparring, damn it! They were enemies, figuring each other out, and that would aid them in their exploits together. Still, it was adorable the way she worried, and Painite almost wanted to reassure her that she was fine.

Instead she just carried on with her attack.

“Oh!”

She was surprised when Zan opted to not use her weapon at all, but rather grab on to the spear and give Painite something to think about. She struggled with the urge to hang on to her weapon, or let go and let Zan take it by surprise. She didn’t want to let it go, though, and she stumbled forward, releasing her staff with one hand and lashing out with it, swinging a good old fashioned punch Zan’s way.

When Painite threw a punch at her the Lieutenant was caught by surprise. She hadn’t been expecting her to attack her. Obviously Zan didn’t think enough steps ahead. The punch landed on her cheek and she let go of the spear, stumbling back. Tripping over her heels she fell on her butt, wincing. The ground was not so soft.

Zanazziite stared up at her from the ground, she could get right back up and try to punch her, or…Violet eyes flicked down to her legs, and trying to be creative, she kicked out, attempting to knock Painite off her feet. Her legs weren’t very strong, so her kicks didn’t have as much impact as her punches.

Ah ha, weapon back. She pulled it back quickly, not wanting to give her opponent another chance to get a hold of it. At least she had learned something in the fight: make sure to not give someone the chance to catch her weapon and pull it away from her. That was a good note to take.

She watched as Zan fell, moving to take advantage of it.

“Not so fast,” she said, seeing her lashing out at her legs. She bounced, taking a wider stance when she landed, her feet on either side of Zan’s legs now. She brought her spear down, stopping it just short of Zan’s face. So maybe she was holding back a little bit. Even if Zan was already retaliating and would have gotten away before Painite could land her hit, she didn’t actually want to hurt her teammate.

Zan’s brows furrowed as her kick missed. Dang it! She was really hoping that would work. She didn’t have time to roll away before Painite came down on either side of her. She was stuck, what was she supposed to do? She couldn’t roll away, and from this angle she couldn’t hit her. She was stuck, trapped like a rat.

She didn’t have long to feel trapped before a spear was coming down at her face. Rationally she knew they were sparring, she knew that Painite wouldn’t really hurt her. But there was a spear coming at her face and in that moment rationality flew out the window. Screaming she threw her hands up, flinching back from the oncoming weapon.

Painite looked down at Zan, frowning. She sat down suddenly, right on top of her, pinning her to the ground in what might have been an awkward position if she was the type to notice those things. And at the moment, since it was convenient, she wasn’t. She let her spear return to its subspace pocket, moving to take Zan’s hands from her face.

“I’m not going to stab you in the face,” she declared, just in case she was wondering.

She offered a smile, shaking her head.

“I could have, though. You can’t drop your fight, even when it looks bad. I know it was different, because we’re teammates and I wouldn’t hurt you like that, but if I weren’t then you can’t react like that, right? I mean, seeing it coming is scary enough, but that should make you want to fight it even more, right?”

She was perched lightly on top of her, tilting her head down at her.

“You okay?”

And then instead of a spear to the face she felt a weight on her stomach. It was a surprising weight, she didn’t generally have people sitting on her, but she was still frozen in fear of the spear. When Painite’s hands pulled at her’s Zanazziite lowered them, staring up at her captain. At least she wasn’t crying, but she did look disappointed in herself. She shouldn’t have screamed like that.

Her words made her smile just slightly. ”I know,” And she did know. She had just forgotten.

She frowned as Painite continued. The older women was right, she couldn’t freeze like that ever again. ”You’re right, I messed up.” She sighed, she’d get better- she had too.

The question made her smile again and she nodded. ”I’m alright, it was just scary seeing a spear coming at me. But I’ll do better next time.” Glancing down her body, she seemed to finally realize that Painite was actually sitting on her. A blush rose to her cheeks and she looked away, it wasn’t sexual in the least, but for Zanazziite it was awkward.

Painite smiled softly and nodded her head.

“Don’t worry, we’ll keep training and you’ll get used to sharp, dangerous weapons coming flying at you! And then you will not be prepared for that awful senshi magic. Hm. We’ll figure out a proper balance, I should think.” She grinned, nodding her head. It wasn’t like she had lesson plans for training people. She had never done it before, and they were both learning as they went.

Seeing Zan blush, she got up quickly.

“Sorry! Didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. Here,” she offered her hand and a bright smile, chuckling. “Come on up. I think we did good! You alerted me to a flaw in my own fighting style.”

She chuckled.

“Now we’ll have to try and get out of here without falling down holes or getting bitten by mousetraps. I should probably pick them all up.”

”That sounds good!” She wasn’t sure how they would prepare her for senshi magic, but she trusted Painite would figure out something. She was smart enough to come up with all those traps after all.

When Painite stood up Zan took her hand standing as well. ”Oh, it’s alright. I’m just not used to being close to people.” It was an awkward thing to say, but it was true. Brushing her dress off she smiled at the Captain. ”That’s good! I’m glad I could help.”

Turning she looked over the field. ”You didn’t leave yourself a way out?”

“I… I did not, no. That might have been a good idea, ey? Oh well! We can go out the way you came in, since all those traps have gone off. There aren’t too many more, I shouldn’t think.” She grinned, goofy, moving to collect some of the traps that had gone off and put them back in the back, avoiding the pot holes.

“Whoever comes here next is going to have a very interesting game of tag, or catch, or whatever it is they might want to play in this field.”

She grinned at that, and decided to leave a couple of traps, just for fun. Once everything was gathered, she had the bag on her shoulder.

“Okay! I think that went well. We’ll do this again soon, and perfect a few things. I think you should focus on using both of your antlers, and switching up to just one. It’ll throw your opponents off, for sure. Especially if you get good at both ways of fighting, so if you start a fight with one you can really surprise them.” She grinned at that idea.

She did love surprises.

Zanazziite couldn’t help but laugh a little when Painite said she didn’t leave herself a way out. At her suggestion she nodded, ”Alrighty,” She watched as the Captain gathered up some of the mouse traps, they were a smart tool to use. Cheap, easy, and effective as the Lieutenant had found out.

Painite’s words made Zan a little worried. What if a squirrel found a mouse trap? It’d get snatched up in a quick second. She thought about saying something, or picking up the traps, but she didn’t. She just had to hope that no innocent animals found the traps.

”Okay! That sounds fun.” She made a mental note to work on her fighting skills in the ways Painite mentioned. ”Next time maybe you’ll be the one on the ground.” She smiled widely at the thought. Could she get good enough to knock the Captain down? She sure hoped so.

She didn’t leave food in the traps, which was nice enough. She wasn’t thinking about animals, though, only people. Which was usually how she worked. She looked at Zan, not noticing the troubled expression on behalf of the animals who might get caught in the traps. She only left a couple, enough to be inconspicuous.

“I’d buy you lunch if you managed that,” Painite said with a laugh. She didn’t just mean it as being cocky, though there was that too. Now that she had said it, she would keep to it. If Zan won against her next time, or whenever, she’d take her out to lunch.

Why not?

“Alright! I’ll see you later then!”

Zan smile widely at that. While she didn’t need anyone to take her out to lunch, the idea was still something to work towards. She’d never gone to a lunch with someone where she hadn’t paid. ”I’ll hold you to it!”

She waved to her Captain before she ran off, careful not to step on any of the traps she left behind.