Welcome to Gaia! ::

The little ninja was whipping through the trees like the wind. His purpose renewed, he sought out Chaos signals lower in rank than he so he could learn who they were and train them. Learning as many names as he could was a personal goal of Bazzi's - the more people he knew, the more connections he could make and the more friend he'd have on the battlefield. He'd come a long way since beginning his training as a lieutenant. Benitoite would be so proud.

He'd been passing by the Destiny City Botanical Garden when that familiar Chaos feeling popped up on his radar - and a lieutenant at that! With a smile as wide as a mile, the captain quickly averted his course and plunged into the wilderness of the jungle. Or garden. Whatever.

Leaping from light post to light post, Bazzi finally laid eyes on who he was looking for - someone his age, maybe? He didn't recognize the boy so he perched himself on a nearby light and waved. "Hiya!"

The captain spazzed and flipped upside down on his post, unintentionally mimicking a bat. He still waved a few times before dropping to the ground (practicing the rill Aubrey had taught him) and stood up, brushing himself off. Bazzite walked up to the taller lieutenant with a smile and a hop in his step. "Hiya!" he said again, eyes shining brightly. He'd never met this one before so the boy knew he was in for a treat. Most everybody he met in the Negaverse was awesome. So why should this be any different?

"I'm Cap'n Bazzite but you can call me Bazzi. What's your name? Are you new? I don't think we've met before. Heeeeeey." The boy looked down onto the (oh, hey, he was older than he looked at a distance!) man's arm. "Issat a snake? Is that your weapon? Dude that is so cool! I didn't start with a snake. I got origami but now I got..."

Dig into the jacket. Find what you're looking for. Beam. Strike a pose. "SHURIKEN."

Now Bazzite was imagining this guy wielding his own giant cobra. Or an army of cobras. That shot lasers and it was the coolest thing ever.

Bazzite skipped over noticing how utterly perturbed Serpentine seemed to be. Now that he had a better look at the taller lieutenant, the captain realized this guy was a good five+ years older than he himself was. Well isn't that neat? The Negaverse didn't just need young people - older folks were definitely useful too. Most definitely. And Serpentine seemed like a pretty cool guy all in all even if they did just meet.

The question made Bazzite frown for a second, look around, perform three scans in quick succession and turn back to Serpentine with an odd look on his face. "Uhh... nope, not feelin' anybody nearby. Just you n' me, pal." The captain scratched his head. "Have you been scannin' around here? Feel anybody else lately?"

Maybe this guy was hella super new and didn't know how to scan? Or maybe he was just really distracted by all the pretty flowers. Either way, Bazzite felt the need to prove himself as a captain by doing whatever it took to support the lieutenants and help them train.

Serpentine's question confused the captain. He tilted his head in response.

"What? A guy can't just swing by and say hello?" he asked, purely innocent. Truth be told he was a rather social creature so dropping in on someone to hang out didn't seem so odd to Bazzite. "I mean, unless you're super busy, in which case... sorry about that! I was just gonna head on down to the Rift an' all that an' wanted to know if you needed a ride?"

If he was new then perhaps Serpentine had never heard of the Rift or been sent there before? Bazzite did know that lieutenants and newbie senshi couldn't get there without an escort. When Bazzi was still new, he'd hitched several rides with his General, Benitoite. Maybe this guy needed to go down and report to whoever his General was? "I gotta talk to Beni when I get down there. Do you have a General, Serpentine?"

Bazzite blinked at the lieutenant. He wasn't one to pull rank or be rude but no one had just... up and ordered him to do anything unless it was Painite or Benitoite. He'd usually made friends with the lieutenants and never really considered himself above them. The boy frowned for a moment, pondering how this sort of order would affect the grand scheme of things like a ripple in a still pond but...

...teleporting sounded a lot more fun than thinking.

"Okie dokie! Hold onto your snakes, Serpee." With the quickness his promotion granted him, Bazzite swung an arm around the taller adult's arm and in an instant, the world around them shifted and sagged. Teleporting himself was something he was just now getting used to, but a passenger was something new entirely. When the world stopped vomiting like a kaleidoscope on steroids, the two found themselves in the Rift. The area was dark and foreboding. Bazzite wheezed and fell to his rear.

"WHEW. Boy..." he flopped on his back. "...das... way harder than... they make it out to be... n' all that... you know?"

Once the flowing waves of nausea had passed, Bazzite rocked himself up into a sitting position and checked to see that gravity was still working properly. Shaking his head, he took several deep breaths before clearing his throat and standing up. A little wobbly but no worse for the wear. First teleport with a passenger was a success!

Beni would be so proud.

Serpentine's question was met with a smile. "Yep! I mean... it's a great place to train. You don't hafta worry about senshi, the youma have their lil' crib an' so they don't bug you. I mean if you wanna go down further, you gotta have an escort else the youma'll snack on you. But otherwise it's a great place!" Bazzite opened his arms to encompass the entirety of the Rift in his mind. "S'like our own little private city... thing. But you can only get here if you gotta Cap'n or a General cuz they can teleport here!"

Bazzite nodded, walking with Serpentine further into the Rift like a tour guide. "Yeah, the monsters are down here an' they're called youma. Some of 'em listen to Captains and Generals but I dunno about lieutenants." he explained with a frown and a shrug. It was surprising that a Captain as seemingly dense as Bazzite knew a few things about the organization he worked for. "The youma're further in an' there's a whole city down there too. I know the youma go bonkers when corrupted senshi go down there."

The captain's soft padding made little noise as they walked around the Rift, his hands in his jacket pockets. "There's an arena down there too - I seen a couple'a Generals down there. Sometimes Beni'll take me down there for training. I can do that for you too!" Bazzite winked at the taller man. "Dunno much more about it than that. I haven't done any explorin' but the youma give me the heebie-jeebies sometimes, lookin' at me like I was a chicken wing or somethin'."

"Weeeeeell," started the captain, looping his hands behind his head as he walked. "There's senshi on our side too so I don't see how they can't go down there an' train like we can. Some of 'em are real super loyal and real good at workin' with us. I met a couple of 'em and they're not so bad. They wear black but they're not like the Dark Mirror peeps. Have you met any'a them?" The question was valid - Bazzite thought it was a great deal of fun to meet as many people as he could while in the service of the Negaverse. Some were reclusive but the Dark Mirrors were pretty open and friendly.

Mention of the Arena got Bazzite excited. It was one of the few places in the Rift he knew the exact location of. "C'mon, I'll show you!"

The Captain quickened his pace to an eager trot as the pair approached the Hall of Shadows - the place where youma were held back by a magical barrier and one must pass through in order to reach deeper parts therein. The arena lay not too far from the end of the Hall but the trek had its perils, regardless. "I heard a story where a lieutenant was by himself and he got like," Bazzite stopped, turned around and made a sudden slurping and then popping sound. "pulled right outta the Hall. I dunno if it's real or if it's just a story to scare people but... you'll be okay here with me!"

Several youma yowled and clawed at the magical barrier, glowing eyes fixated on the two Negaverse agents.

"And here we are, the scenic... uh... Arena!"