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There was a Captain in a secluded part of the park.

What was he doing there?

"One!" Pause. "Two! Three four FIVE!"

Bazzite continued to punch and kick at an old tree like a punching bag. It was incredibly sturdy and could take a few hits, but Bazzite was slowly learning that punching a tree hurt like hell. So instead he'd switched to a series of kicks before executing a backflip to give himself distance. Maybe one day he could execute the backflip and throw his shuriken, but one thing at a time. He needed more practice! And so he went at his training again.

Bazzite was concentrating so hard on training that he forgot to scan the area for possible intruders. He thought he was fairly well camouflaged and secluded in this end of the park but clearly he was wrong. The captain sputtered and turned about to face..

...someone who looked kinda like Remarque. Bazzite tilted his head.

She knew about the NEGA NINJAS?

....was this love?

o_o

Blushing, Bazzite covered his face in his hood and coughed. "Uhh... yeah! HI! I don't think I've seen you before." he explained, rubbing the back of his head, cheeks still red with embarrassment. "I'm Cap'n Bazzite! But you can call me Bazzi. Are you one'a those Dark Mirrors? Like Remarque? He's pretty cool so I bet you're pretty cool too!"

Bazzite chuckled and rubbed the back of his head, the blush fading a little bit from his cheeks. " 'hat's okay! I mean it's not like this tree's goin' anywhere or anything."

When this gal, Aurora, introduced herself, Bazzite reached out his hand to shake. Benitoite would have bowed but Bazzi? Bazzi wasn't that classy. "It's nice ta meetcha, Aurora! Senshi of Romance. Boy I bet you get lotsa boyfriends n' suitors and stuff. And you got nice sleeves! You could hide lotsa weapons and important stuff in there, you know!" He dropped her a wink and a smile. Man, all the Dark Mirror people were so nice! "Always important to keep yourself safe with all the..."

Strike a pose, waggly voodoo fingers. "...space pirates runnin' around with their wings and shields and horrible punches n' stuff."

Bazzi huffed and frowned.

When asked about his rank, Bazzite shined. "Oh yeah! I just promoted and it's awesome." He did a couple spins and kicks (away from Aurora's general direction) to display his new found power. "Got a new weaon n' everything so I can help train people an--- OH I CAN TELEPORT. I need to try that sometime..."

Wait, the Senshi of Romance didn't have a ton of boyfriends or a fanclub or something? Now that was weird. Bazzite was sure she'd be like the little winged Cupid guy, except a girl and dressed in black and not naked, shooting magic arrows at people's butts and making them fall in love and all that jazz. Huh.

Consider Bazzi's perceptions altered.

Boyfriends aside, the captain found this was a most excellent opportunity to explain the whole pirate vs. ninja thing that he'd seen from the moment he joined forces with the Negaverse. "Oh yeah, space pirates and all that! Here, I'll explain." Bazzite put on his Super Serious Face and took a deep breath. "Okay so for hundreds of bazillions of years, ninjas and pirates have been locked in a deadly war of supremacy. But now we're part of it! The White Mooners n' stuff, they're the pirates. Since they're from space, they're space pirates! Nice n' easy, huh?"

The captain chuckled for a little bit. "Negaverse agents are the ninjas. But ya see, since you're on our side and you're from space, you're a Space Ninja! Just remember you're on the the good side. We ninjas, we're tryin' to help everybody and keep everybody safe from enslavement by a stingy old Moon Bag or whatever, yep. So that's the whole ninja-pirate thing. The condensed version!"

Stepping back for a moment, Aurora brought up a great point. Part of his job as a captain was to help train people! "Yeah, that's a great idea! I mean, I'm no good with magic n' all that but... well I'm real good at runnin' and dodgin' n' stuff like that. Maybe I can help you here?"

"Oh hey don't you worry okay? I'll help you out and teach you everything I know and um... can't Dark Mirrors contact other people or something with like a lil' device? I mean I got my Nega crystal thing... hmm." Figuring out the intricacies of inter-war communication was something Bazzite wasn't capable of doing. He was good at quite a few things, but thinking critically wasn't one of them. "Aaaaanyway, I'll teach you everything I know about fighting and then if you ever want a partner to run around with, you call me! That'll give us even more practice cuz..."

The captain leaned in real close as if to tell a secret. "...White Mooners beatin' up on a cute girl just ain't cool, yo."

Bazzite chuckled.

"Anyway!"

The captain started out by punching through the air as hard as he could as a demonstration. "Sometimes it's just easier to learn to dodge well than to learn to punch well cuz not everybody's got big muscles like Remarque." Another series of punches and Bazzite smiled. "See, most of the time people put all their strength into punching, an' all that power goes forward, see? Cuz they wanna hit as hard as they can. But it's actually real easy to knock their hands to the side and like... avoid it! Cuz they don't expect that! See, I can practice with you an' I promise I won't punch too hard. I don't have all those beefy muscles anyway!"

The captain stepped closer to Aurora, about at arm's length. "I'll go real slow and you just use your forearm, like this..." Bazzite made a motion as if redirecting a punch coming at him. "It's kinda like... like water! You're movin' their arm outta the way. Plus it keeps 'em off balance."

Bazzite blinked.

"Omigod I think we're like... brain buddies or something, Aurororoora. Wow that's a mouthful." The captain shook his head to clear what few jumbled thoughts kind of rolled around there like so many loose hamsters. "But yeah, the idea's that you divert their attacks so you can get away! I mean, ch. You know, real men, they don't pick on ladies."

Bazzite puffed out his chest. As if that meant something.

Surely there was a wind blowing in his head and a great flaming sunrise behind him. His stance resembled Captain Morgan and he didn't realize he was doing it before it was too late. If he had muscles, it might've been impressive but as Bazzite did not, he deflated like a balloon. And the whole Game of Thrones thing went right over his poor head. He just kind of stared while his mind caught up.

"Well I dunno about water dancing. The best I can do is Twister and that hasta be done to music but anyway, let's give it a try!"

Bazzite moved forward and, true to his word, moved slowly so that Aurora would understand the deflecting movement the captain was trying to teach her. "I guess you could think of it like dancin'! I mean if that works real good for you then I say go for it!"

Bazzite frowned. Why did girls pick on other girls? Wasn't there some sort of universal rule against that? Or was this more like Mean Girls? Bazzite huffed and before he knew it, his Dark Mirror companion was on her butt.

Well, it wasn't supposed to work quite like that!

He reached out a hand to help the poor girl up. "Oh hey Aurora, why'd you end up down there? Psh but no worries, you're getting the hang of it! Soon you'll be able to out-dodge and out-maneuver all those White Moon bitches in a heartbeat. They'll be left going..."

The captain turned away in a dramatic fashion, eyes sparkling like anime dinner plates. "Oh wow Aurora is so cool I better join her cuz I wanna be cool like that! My life has been a complete waste until now! I've been SAVED." He then turned back to his companion. "You know, like that. Wanna go again?"

The pair practiced for the better part of an hour (maybe more), stopping every so often to catch their breath or laugh about some silly antics. Bazzite was rather happy to have met Aurora - they thought alike and it never hurt to have more friends, especially connections in the faction that was supposed to be an ally to his own. The Dark Mirrors were mysterious and a little bit exclusionary but that didn't stop Bazzite from trying to help as many of them as he could.

Once they finished their latest round, Bazzite stopped and stretched. "That was good, Aurora! You're getting the hang of it. Pretty soon you'll be able to dodge like everything all Matrix style and all that. But you gotta call me when you do cuz I wanna see it."

Very Serious Face.