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Okay, so, if she climbed just a little bit higher she'd have a big enough vantage of the street to presumably manage to peg any Negaverse officer she came across. In theory, anyway, she hadn't really accounted for anyone higher up than her. The maple tree was pretty tall, though. She'd probably be okay even if someone was rooftop hopping.

Theoretically.

She hadn't quite figured out how to vanish her apple to subspace like that other page had done with his compass, and wished she would already; did you just, like, pretend to put it away? Or was there some kind of thing where you just had to trust that things were going into the right... "pocket"? Whatever it was, she wasn't ready to risk losing her only (kinda lame) weapon in ever, so she had shoved it into her sleeves as she climbed a tree. This didn't go so well when she slipped and the damn thing fell out, bouncing off branches and s**t as it went. Like a damn carnival game, she decided, following it as she slid from one branch to another. Only the prize at the end was the over-gelled head of what looked like a middle management executive, who really shouldn't be out wandering. She knew there was some kind of enemy near by. If she'd been a little more experienced, she might have been able to identify the nearby agent as the man about to get clobbered.

Instead, she dropped another branch down and yelled, "Hey, look out!"

Avalon made a strange sound like a balloon deflating when she hit a branch just under her ribs, and promptly wrapped her arms around the thick tree limb, feet dangling out in open space. "I am trying," she grated out as she tried to catch her breath. Finally, she wrangled some kind of steadiness and dropped the rest of the way to the ground. Trying to dust herself off, she looked back at the presumed civilian. There was that persistent feeling of wrongness like she'd sensed around Zinkenite, but muted. Presumably the enemy was still far away, if the signature was so faint. "You know, it's not a good idea to be out by yourself? Monsters hang around out here."

Like hell she'd call them youma. She was American. She would use an American word.

"Sorry about that," she said, holding her hand out for the apple. She really didn't have such a good feeling about this, where the hell was the monster anyway? "Can I have that back? I kind of need it."

He looked kind of conflicted. Could the Negaverse's monsters possess people? Like, he just looked like a regular old businessman except for the near-neon shade of his collared shirt. She might have to ask what store he got it from, actually, she liked it and was trying to expand out of black-and-white. This outfit actually had some nice shades to it, maybe she'd borrow them for her civilian closet--but back on topic, was she in danger here?

"It's okay," she said, although she definitely looked annoyed. When you were six foot four, the ground was a long way away. "Hey, it doesn't get bruised anyway, so no big. You should really head home, there's something bad around here and it's kind of dangerous when they're around."

The man was just a clumsy civilian, not a monster. She could be nice to a clumsy civilian, even if his clumsiness annoyed her a bit. The brunette page bent down to pick up her bright red apple, trying to squelch the feeling of suspicion. Something wasn't right here. It really wasn't right.

It might not have been the apex of powerful swings, but it was still hard enough for someone who wasn't expecting it. "Oh, <********>," cried Avalon, stumbling back with her apple thankfully in hand. She was pretty sure she'd just bitten her lip open, and brought one hand up to press its white bandaging against her bleeding mouth. "What the hell--"

Comprehension dawned on her face, and her dark eyes narrowed. "You're the monster," she said, voice more annoyed than betrayed. How could she not have noticed the feeling like sulfur on her skin came from somewhere so close? Avalon backed up a few steps, moving out of his range--hopefully--and more into hers. "I'm so stupid." Of course he didn't need to be protected, he was one of the people that she needed to protect others from! Her annoyance--and the pain from his smack with the microphone, she felt like she could feel her ******** pulse in her head--lent extra strength when she haphazardly chucked her apple at his gut.

"You--ugh, you a*****e!" Next time she was so listening to her gut about people. If it said they were off, she was going to trust it and blast her apple right into their ******** skulls before they could get the drop on her.

He couldn't be serious. Pick-up lines at your enemies? Sure, maybe if you knew they made them uncomfortable, but otherwise it seemed kind of… douchebaggy. Not that luring young ladies into your strike zone and then slamming a microphone into the back of their head wasn't already pretty much the height of douchebaggy, but Avalon really had to air her concerns about his taunt choices. Or she would be, except she was too busy being insulted about being called stupid. He probably had to really think she was stupid to think she'd buy the line about 'pretty'. Maybe if you were gay.

"Oh, that was so ******** lame," she fumed, watching her apple roll away like it was just going for a walk on down the street. How the hell was she going to get that back? She really needed to learn about that subspace bullshit that she'd heard about. "Like your pickup lines! Lame!"

Maybe she didn't have to work herself up to attacking the enemy. Maybe she just had to get worked up. It seemed likely, considering she was pretty incensed at this guy and didn't seem to think that it'd be such a bad thing to bash his skull in with an apple. "You're just a lieutenant, why would anyone know you?" Scoffing at the better-built opponent, good idea, Avalon, keep it right the ******** up. "Come back when you're a general like Zinkenite or a Captain like Wolframite." Wolframite was probably a General by now, too, but at the moment she was grabbing for anything to unsettle this officer. Anything to get under his skin, get him mad. Trash-talking your opponents was a legitimate tactic in her long-ago days of competitive gaming, and this was just a competition, right? Higher stakes than just money, though, she guessed. "What, can't find any innocent civilians to steal starseeds from? Gotta resort to harder targets?" As she spoke, Avalon was working her way around the Lieutenant--slow, measured steps to her right, maintaining the same distance as best she could tell.

When she thought she was close enough to make it to her apple, she lunged for it.

"Heard of them, I've met them," she said, although the news that Wolframite had become a General was both saddening and concerning. Once she would have been happy for her friend. Once, she'd been in love with him--or she thought she had been. Now it was just disgusting, an abhorrent idea. Avalon wanted justice, not martial law under whoever led the Negaverse. A General-something? She didn't know, which was something she really did have to correct, and soon.

Maybe her civilian face did have some use. Osumilite's stomp almost caught her fingers, but she came away with her apple in hand even if her nails had been introduced to an impromptu emery board. Honestly, was she a balloon filled with blood, she wondered, hissing as she stared at the pinpricks of blood at her fingertips. "They're not all they've been cracked up to be. Do you always play so dirty?" Did her sadness at the thought of Wolframite show? She hoped not. The last thing she needed was for people to think the idea of hurting Wolframite would give her pause.

Because it wouldn't.

She pressed her apple between both hands, hoping her banter would buy her time to think of something to do. She didn't have a moveset like a character in a fighting game; no, but she was limited by her body and her costume. Which really meant she had to get a gym membership sometime... Just stay calm. Keep your head. "Is it Negaverse custom to attack young women unprovoked, anyway," she asked, seeking to goad him into doing something stupid. Or at least to distract him from her measured steps back--back and away. This was not a fight she thought she could win. "Some kind of good guy you are, aggressing on a girl who hadn't even raised a hand to you!"

Fake. Fakey-fake sincerity, like a lot of the Negaverse. Avalon had a lot of experience discerning at least that sort of falsehood; the vagaries of auras might still be avoiding her still, but she'd had less than a week to learn the ins-and-outs and knew it would come with time. One day she'd be able to tell Casual Fridays Negaverse from monster without even opening her eyes. Or perhaps she wouldn't. They did seem to be one and the same in her very limited experience. It would bear study.

"If it's not personal, let me go," she said. "That'd make me believe you right off." She snorted at the idea of being a terrorist; she didn't exactly agree with the senshi being there. Negaverse and senshi: Those were the terrorists. Not Avalon. She got dragged into this and would stick with it so she could protect her own life. Her own career, and hopes, and dreams.

She shook her head. "You tried that before, and it's not going to work." Avalon Page of Earth did not hand out free information. "I'll trade you. Information for its own like." The whole time, she kept moving backwards, heels clicking on the pavement. "Or I can pitch this piece of fruit into your skull and escape, it's up to you."

Oh holy crap faaar too close. She didn't move, just because what was the point? The murky eyes--this close, they were either brown or gray, which was a great deal more definition than anyone got from further off--narrowed, meeting his bright blue for just a moment before they flicked down. Their toes were just millimeters apart, true, which meant if she absolutely had to... Oh, but she hated cheap shots so much.

If she had to, then, the option was there. "Avalon," she said, cocking her head a bit. "Avalon Page. That's what I am. Now back off."