Captain Painite was on a roll recently. True enough, she only had a few technical wins under her belt, as most of her fights with senshi ended up in draws or with her face in the pavement, but to her the recent, however tiny, streak of wins was a great morale booster. She was on top of the world, and no one could touch her: she was everything she strove to be, and from here she would just go higher and higher.

And Senshi would have to just get out of her way, or become the stepping stones in that meteoric rise. A fitting fate, she imagined.

She was day dreaming while sitting atop an awning on a shop. She was hidden behind the letters of the large building, looking down between them lazily to her trap dangling below. Three unconscious humans, arms reaching toward the floor, shirts billowing around their heads (which would probably be embarrassing for the girl in the group if she had been conscious), were hanging from the store front. Painite had been careful about setting the trap: she knew there were cameras in the building. She wasn’t sure if it had a street view, but she wasn’t going to get caught on it if it did.

It didn’t matter, really. No one would think to look at the cameras if Painite had her way. The humans wouldn’t be waking up anywhere near here. It was just a convenient location for them to dangle from.

Damian was singing along with the radio on his way home from work. It had been a pretty good day all in all, he had even gotten a raise. It was only fifty cents, but hey it was still a raise. His fingers drummed against the steering wheel, belting out the lyrics to some pop song.

It wasn’t until he drove past the dangling bodies that the song died on his lips, and his car slowed down so he could stare at them. What the hell? He focused for a moment, and it didn’t take him long to pick up on the energy signature of a Nega. It was stronger than most he had felt, a Captain maybe?

He kept driving, turning down the first street he came to. Parking his Jeep he jumped out ducking in between two buildings before he raised his henshin pen and became Super Sailor Orion.

He headed back the way he had come, trying to stick to the shadows as much as he could as he approached the bodies. When he reached them he paused, staring. How was he supposed to get them down?

Painite felt the back of her mind prickle. Something was coming, and she could tell it was a senshi. Strong, too. She grinned. She wasn’t scared of Super Senshi any more. She wasn’t scared of any senshi, in fact, though that was probably a stupid thing for her to do. Why should she be scared? She didn’t have to win fights to accomplish what she wanted or needed. It was just icing on the cake. And recently, there was a good supply of lovely, lovely icing.

But cake was still cake, to stretch her metaphor uncomfortably far, and she would be happy with that, as well.

The people were completely unconscious, either knocked out of simply drained of their energy. They didn’t notice the ‘terrorist’, their would be savior. They were situated close together, their feet tied with different ropes, but those ropes all connecting into one. They were attached to the metal brace of the overhang, meant to give shade to the people walking below, the short rope tied to the highest part of the arch under the fabric. It left them with only a feet or so of space above the pavement.

Painite moved and shoved on the letters of the store’s logo, which she had previously unloosened. She grinned as they gave way, and the logo started to fall down toward the overhang, the civilians, and the senshi beneath. It was one of her more dangerous traps, for the humans in any case, but she hoped her math paid off as far as where the large letters would strike, how heavy they were, and what damage they could do. She wasn’t in the business of killing humans for fun. But when it meant trapping a senshi, she had to up the ante.

After staring for a moment Orion had begun to try and untie the people’s feet. He couldn’t reach where the rope was tied to the awning, and it was only the fact that he was 6’2 that made it possible for him to reach the knots around their feet.

He didn’t have enough time though. Before he even got the first person untied the large letters above them began to wobble. ”Oh, s**t!” He had to act fast. Either he tried to rip the people down and most likely failed, getting stuck under them, or he could move out of the way and just let the people get crushed.

He went with his instincts, jumping away from the people, watching as the logo fell, trapping them underneath it. He winced, looking away. He just hoped they weren’t all dead with their skulls smashed in or something.

Doing his best to ignore the trapped bodies he looked up to the top of awning where the logo had fallen from. Someone had to have pushed it over. He didn’t banter, or give warning instead he just pointed at the awning calling out his sailor level attack. ”Meteor Rain!” It was an area of effect attack, and he he hoped whoever had pushed the logo was still up there and would be caught in it. At the very least it would hopefully flush them out of hiding.

Painite was surprised by the result of her efforts, looking down from her place on the roof, clinging to where the letters had been attached before. She frowned, tilting her head at the scene below. She wasn’t sure if she felt bad, compelled to go check on those people. Maybe later, if she had a chance. Should she? She wasn’t sure, and she shook the thoughts away to focus on the matter at hand.

“Not the bravest or most heroic senshi I’ve ever seen!” She called, though she was cut off when the senshi leaped right to using his blasted magic.

Did he have no sense of style?

Frustrated that there was no witty back and forth to build her spirits from a fairly depressing trap fail, she tried to keep her focus on the attack. She hated these things. Senshi magic was so cheap, and she knew they’d be a whole lot less of a problem if they didn’t hide behind their little tricks. But then, she supposed that would defeat the purpose of them being there in the first place.

Then, suddenly, fire was raining from the sky. And it hurt. She pulled her arm back and threw her Javelin at him as the attack was still beginning, looking up at the fireballs as they started to fall. Lucky for Painite, she was near the edge of the sudden, focused rain, and could scramble her way to the side to get out of the death fireballs before getting too many hits. Still, she smell smoke and burned skin, and wondered vaguely if her hair was on fire. She had taken a few hits, and her shoulder, chest and the top of her head were hurting her already. Clinging to the side of the building, she took a few breaths before shouting.

“Don’t take it out on me that you didn’t bother to save them, senshi!”

The words that were thrown at him made him scowl. He hadn’t been brave, not really. He’d let those people get trapped under giant metal letters. But, it wouldn’t have done any good to get himself trapped as well. Then he’d just be a sitting duck for the Nega.

He wasn’t expecting the javelin to come flying at him. The only Negas he’d run into were ones with crappy weapons that barely did anything. Having a sharp stick flying at him was a new experience that he wasn’t particularly enjoying. He attempted to dive out of its path, but he wasn’t fast enough and the javelin tore through his fuku before tearing through his arm. ”RRGH!” The sound the super sailor made was unintelligible, a primal growl of pain.

Lifting his right hand he gripped his left shoulder, putting pressure on the gash. It hadn’t hit anything important, thankfully, but his shoulder hurt like a b***h. Pulling his hand away he saw his glove was covered in blood. ********. Grabbing the tear in his sleeve he pulled it, the entire sleeve coming off. Awkwardly he wrapped the makeshift tourniquet around his shoulder, using his attack as cover to take the time to tie it off, having to grab the fabric in his mouth to tighten the knot.

By the time he was finished his attack was over and the Captain was shouting at him again. He glared up at her. ”You’re the one who put them in danger in the first place! Don’t try and make me feel like s**t over what you’ve done.” Gathering his strength he leaped up, landing on top of the building. His eyes were hard as he approached her. Seeing her up close his confidence grew. She was a foot shorter than him, and now her weapon was down on the street instead of in her hands. ”You’re going to pay for what you did to those people.” He rushed forwards, throwing a punch at her face with his good hand.

Painite let out a whoop of triumph when she saw her Javelin strike the senshi. She liked the sound of pain he made, though there was an edge to it that immediately got her guard up. When senshi got mad, they fought harder. And they didn’t like to get hurt, so she imagined he was ready to get some real fighting in.

She wasn’t nervous though. She was more powerful then she had been before, and had a lot of experience with these so called ‘super’ senshi.

“Poor little senshi! Did you spill some blood? Such a shame! Those stains will never come out.”

She was still stinging. The burns she had suffered were still giving her a lot more trouble than she wanted to admit. That attack had been strong and sudden, and she had taken some damage she would have to contend with. Even so, she was still willing to gloat over the senshi like she had the upper hand completely, and he needed to know it. So what if he could make it rain fire balls? She had made him bleed! And she would do it again.

Dropping from the building she grinned broadly as the senshi returned her taunts.

“The difference is, it’s your job to protect them, not mine! I did my job, didn’t I? As far as you senshi know, putting civilians in danger is just what I’m here to do.” Her eyes narrowed as he raced toward her. He thought he was going to get a surprise attack in, did he? She had been in this situation before: an enemy running toward her, her weapon out of her hand. She had banished it then and called it back to her hand just in time to stab the Page. The same would work for a senshi, wouldn’t it?

There was one way to find out. She called her weapon to her hand and let him come, hoping to stab him before getting smashed in the face. Her poor face. She hated it being the target of so many senshi fists.

Orion growled at her words, he really hated Negas, especially when they managed to actually hurt him, and especially when they managed to hurt innocent people. ”Crappy job you have, Negabitch.” He ran towards her, not expecting her to be able to get her weapon back. He wasn’t well versed on Negaverse mechanics.

When the spear appeared his eyes widened and he stopped so suddenly he tripped over his own feet, falling to the ground. s**t. Pushing himself up he stepped back, how was he supposed to get close when she had that giant spear pointed at him? He kept his silver eyes trained on her, looking for an opening.

Painite looked down at him when he fell, grinning ear to ear.

“Graceful!”

She watched him keenly, taking a breath. She was nervous, but she was ready for the fight. Whatever he tried, she had to stay on her toes. There was no way she was going to let another fight get the best of her and there was no way she would take another defeat laying down. No, this time she was going to give it everything she had and not take failure as an option.

Her patience for failure was wearing thin, though she had always had a wealth of it before. Now she was beginning to feel like it shouldn’t be happening. She should be strong enough to handle herself. To have more wins than losses. To do her job to its fullest: and do what she had to for the Negaverse.

“Ready to die, Senshi?”

”Do you really think you can kill me? You’re four feet nothing, and probably weigh ninety pounds soaking wet. If it wasn’t for your spear you wouldn’t be nearly as tough.” He began to circle her, keeping an eye on that spear. For all his tough words he was intimidated by it, the thing looked sharp.

The longer he looked at the spear the more uneasy he felt. It wasn’t that he was scared, of course not, he was just worried for his safety. He wouldn’t be much good to anyone if he was skewered. Maybe he should just throw himself at her? No, then he’d just get stabbed most likely.

Orion knew he couldn’t just stand there and not do anything, so he did the only thing he could think of. ”Meteor Shower!” He pointed at her, calling out his super attack. It was similar to his sailor attack only the meteors were bigger, and followed his target. It was possible to outrun the attack and he was hoping that she would be busy with that giving him time to take off.

He was already backing up, heading towards the edge of the roof. ”Well, it was nice to meteor you, but I’ve got to run. Things to do, people to save and all that.” With that he dropped off the edge of the building, landing on his feet in the alley below. He took off, hoping she didn’t manage to follow him.

“That all might be true,” it wasn’t, she was at least five foot two, rounded up, “but all I need is my spear. So the point is moot.”

She followed him with her eyes, taking small steps to turn herself as he circled her. She was certainly not going to let him get behind her. That would be making it a bit too easy. Of course, she soon learned that it didn’t matter. He called out his attack, but it was different. A second attack, and she instantly noticed one clear change. The meteors were bigger.

“s**t!”

She leaped back and one struck her, telling her she wasn’t clear. They didn’t hit the same area like the last one had. Goddamn senshi! She took over running, not having time to go and check on the civilians now. She would have to check the news at work, since work was the news, to see if anyone had been killed. There was no time to worry about it now: she had to worry about herself.

And the senshi got away, which was the worst of it all.