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As Madea worried about being hurt, Acubens worried just as much about hurting. She’d been on the hunt for so long, she’d sort of forgotten what play fighting was. She intended to go as easy on Madea as possible, after all, she wasn’t even a fighter in civilian life she didn’t expect. So they would have to start from where Jett had started with her; level zero. So if she threw any punches, they would be at exemplary speed and not connect. Any magic used would have to be directed at the mannequin she’d yanked from Phina’s and dressed as a Nega. Really, all attacks should be on the doll for right now. Acubens didn’t trust herself to not hurt Madea in her excitement.

She clambered through the bush with no measure of grace nor stealth. Which she should have both of in abundance. Being the senshi of raptors and all that. Not that it really mattered, she also wasn’t as smart as velociraptors nor was she as cunning. It would seem all that she got from the extinct predators was her speed, and even that was honed, not gifted by evolution.

“Hey there, Madea,” she panted, lugging the plastic woman alongside her; one arm wrapped around her and one arm shouldering a coil of rope. “Wanna help me tie her to that tree over there? Gonna need a target if you’re gonna practice, right?”

Madea hit Acubens like a storm of glitter and fabric. Air was expelled from her lung in an audible grunt when the sparkling senshi collided with her. Acubens stood for a moment, encumbered and bewildered, trying to figure out when, exactly, Madea had attached herself to her. Finally, when Acubens regained control of her limbs, she rather awkwardly tried to maneuver herself around her burdens to return the embrace.

“Okay, that’s about enough physical affection, don’t you think?” Acubens hid her blush in her piles of red hair. People didn’t usually display affection like that with her. She wasn’t really friends with anyone like that.

She greatfully off loaded the rope and plastic humanoid on Madea, rolling her shoulders and relief. God, those had been heavier than she expected.

She also had not expected a noose.

“Well then. Not bad. Not really what I had in mind but not bad.”

She circled to behind the life-sized doll and held her still, facing Madea.

“Timing is everything, after all. You must have been able to hold your own, you don’t look too beat up, darling. But let me know if I have to hunt anyone down. In the meanwhile, why don’t you give this lady as solid of a punch as you can manage, anywhere you can hit.”

Watching Medea misstep was more than a little reminiscent of Acubens’ own blunders when she began boxing herself. It made her smile fondly, though from behind her hand so as to avoid making Medea think poorly of herself. It was a little precious. It was a lot precious. And a little daunting. And more than a lot exciting. For the both of them.

It wasn’t like this was the first time Acubens had tried to start a team. When she was still young and stupid – well, younger and more stupid than she was now – she had attempted and failed. One of her team mates she hadn’t even seen since she ran her off. Every now and again, Alberio would float into Acubens’ mind and sour her mood with ”what did you do to her” before she danced back out again like nothing was wrong. Acubens, however, was normally ruined for the day.

But this wasn’t a team. This was one girl who Acubens was teaching to fight. And only so much that she could survive. This was not a team.

Right?

Acubens shook herself from her musings, failing to deny to pull she felt towards keeping Medea close to her long after the sparkling senshi was ready to be on her own. She steadied Medea and set her back upright, positioning her arms the way they were supposed to be instead of whatever she’d previously improvised.

“Now, you try again. And after that you try again. And again and again until you land a good enough punch that the mannequin swings on his branch.” She stepped back to her place, several feet to the immediate left of Medea. She’d expected to have to start at level zero, like she had to with Jett. She’d not tell Medea that just yet. Just in case it spoiled her resolve.

And Acubens did understand. In fact it the very emotion had been weighing heavily on her heart for some time. Medea simply put words to it. It did take a little of the pressure off, knowing solidly what it was that kept her so on edge about this whole thing, for sure, but then again, knowing what worried her and still having no answers only made the weight press on her further. It made her head hurt and her vision spin and for a moment, Acubens had to brace herself to keep from tipping with the sick tilting of her world. Maybe this would be an easier thing to manage if she regularly meditated on it; Acubens made it a general point to keep her mind as far from her moral conflict as possible.

“Do the mechanics of fighting get easier? Yes. As you train your muscles to remember the motions it becomes reflex as you fight to make them. Less time thinking and more time getting out alive.”

Acubens paused, fighting a heavy and maybe a little overdramatic sigh.

“Does the moral dilemma of fighting get easier? No. In fact it gets worse.” Acubens scrubbed her face, leaning hard against the trunk of an adjacent tree to steady herself as her world settled. “As you get stronger the responsibility put on you gets greater and it’s less and less likely that you can wiggle around morally. In the end you fight to survive. That means you don’t pick the fights, but you finish them. And you only finish them enough to save the day and escape. Don’t teach lessons with your fists, use your words for that. Fight for your life. Fight for the lives of others. But don’t fight to kill.” She gestured with her hands that she had given all she could and smiled apologetically.

“Find something small and meaningful to fight for. Not the end of whatever war we’re fighting. I fight for my family. Blood and bond. That means I fight for you now, too. That’s it.”

It was a broad goal, and Acubens was afraid it was as unattainable as it was vast. But she kept her mouth shut, not wanting to smash the enthusiasm Medea seemed to harbor for the world. She approached her new position as a senshi with the wide-eyed wonder and quick adaptation Acubens had never enjoyed. While Acubens tripped and fell, Medea skipped and twirled. Acubens was littered with blisters and bruises and watched from the dirt while Medea skipped a head of her with flowers in her hair. It made something ugly rise up in Acubens’ stomach, darkening her expression and forcing her silent.

Medea was a friend. She’d thus far proven herself to be entirely good, which was miles more than Acubens could say.

Acubens covered her mouth with her fingers and lurched a little, fighting the sob that always waited in the bottom of her throat. She covered with a cough and rubbed her chest a little, as though trying to rub away something inside. She winced before she spoke.

“Yeah,” she grumbled, “Good… good goal.” She gave Medea a thumbs up, not trusting herself to say anything further while she recomposed herself.

“It the doll another couple of good hits and we’ll move on to form.”

Suddenly Medea was there. Right there. Acubens looked up and jumped, nearly falling over as she tried to take a step back when she wasn’t ready to do so. After a little bit of flailing, she caught herself, though with only a small portion of her dignity left. She’d been caught moping again, and she’d nearly fallen over. Excellent. Lenka was like 12 and she was a better master than Acubens was at almost 20. She gathered herself and made sure her voice wouldn’t crap out on her before she answered, “I was just saying it was a good goal, that’s all. We all want to save the world, after all. That’s sort of the… collective end goal, isn’t it?” She fought the frown that pulled at her lips and instead forced herself to smile.

Where did Medea even get all that energy? When Acubens had just awakened she was still reeling and falling apart. Hell, she was reeling and falling apart now. Not that this was about Acubens but… damn Medea was just adjusting so well and it was grating on her. And she was so… handsy… and…

And she needs you.

So Acubens swallowed her pride and her temper and smiled again, leaning as easily as she could on the tree to her left.

“Oh yeah. Nega’s are all terrified of copious amounts of glitter you know. So fear. Such frighten.” She laughed at her own joke as Medea took a few more punches before pushing off of the tree and approaching her again.

“Okay, so now we have a base line. This is good. We know you’ve got power to your swing but lack aim and control.” Acubens took hold of Medea’s hips and rotated them, positioning her feet with Acubens’ own.

“This time, hold her fists here.” She positioned them at the smallest point on Medea’s waist, backs of her hands down. “And throw them from here only. As you extend your arm, let it rotate upwards naturally. See how that works for you with your dominant arm.”

So this was to be her student. A hopelessly optimistic, relentlessly affectionate, overly enthusiastic about everything girl. Who, to be quite honest, grated on Acubens’ nerves. Just slightly enough to be easily ignored. And all being said, it was probably because Acubens was bitter about anyone who was anything less than jaded. Was it jealousy? Realistically, yeah, probably. More than likely. Medea was miles ahead. Absolute miles.

The sound effects cut through Acubens’ brooding, and brought into stark relief just how bad at this Medea was. And, actually, how bad at this Acubens was. And she made it all sound so simple. Step one, save everyone. There was no step two. No plan B. There was only absolute success and nothing else.

Honestly, why was Acubens so sour when she powered up? She readjusted herself and forced a smile. Forcing smiles begot real smiles right? She was moderately certain that was how the science worked, right?

The smile faltered, however, at the question. How did she even begin to describe how she felt about this whole stupid war? Acubens was silent for a long time before she finally swallowed thickly and croaked, “I think we save us and ours.” She left of the second, more ruthless idea of leaving them and theirs to the wolves. Because, the way she saw it, it was kill or be killed in this war, as far as she saw, and since she couldn’t kill, then she’d let someone else die in her stead. She’d save her brother and her parents. That was it