Welcome to Gaia! ::

Megiddo was feeling pretty good about how she’d handled herself in this fight so far, although it probably didn’t hurt that this youma seemed especially weak. She’d found the poor, spindly thing digging through trash bins outside the library and taken it upon herself to dispatch it before it could find more trouble than just chicken bones, apple cores, and last week’s newspapers. Ten minutes and a short chase later, she had it on the ropes, pounding against its wire-furred jaw with her fists. It was making an awful racket, which she was sure meant she was getting close to dusting it.

Switching her pitcher to her left hand, Megiddo through one more punch, followed by a ferocious swing. The youma crumbled, and she let out a whoop of victory. She was getting so much better at this! (Never mind that the thing had been practically half-dead when she started.)

Spinning on her heels, Megiddo checked her surroundings for power signatures like she’d been taught to do in her encounter with Ys. She didn’t sense any more chaotic signatures in the area, but she did sense something. The page frowned. Order, she evaluated, and a strong one at that. Maybe an eternal sensi like Pasiphae. “Hello?” she called uncertainly, taking a few steps towards the power signature. “Who’s there?”

Megiddo watched the senshi descend from the roof, but she didn’t recognized the redhead. Not that she even knew all that many senshi, but this woman wasn’t one that she’d ever met before. And one who seemed woefully misinformed. At the word lieutenant, Megiddo pulled an ugly face. “Excuse you,” she said. “I’m a page. Megiddo of Saturn. I wouldn’t be caught dead as a lieutenant.” Or a dark mirror senshi. Or anything like that.

“What it did wrong was exist,” she said sourly, polishing her pitcher on her skirt. “Those things are gross and it’s part of my responsibilities as a page to take them out.” She looked the senshi up and down, trying to evaluate her. Wings meant experience, but experience would surely mean the ability to tell the difference between a page and a lieutenant, wouldn’t it? So this confusion was very, very odd. Megiddo frowned.

“Doesn’t your like, spidey-sense brain radar tell you when someone is Order or Chaos aligned?” she asked. She knew hers did, although it had taken some explaining for her to even realize it existed. Weird. “Anyway,” she shrugged, “I took care of the problem. Nothing to see here. Business as usual, ladies and gentlemen.”

Megiddo definitely hadn’t expected the senshi to come over and grab her. She wasn’t used to a hands-on approach from superheroes in miniskirts, and to tell the truth - she sort of liked it! She’d missed the physical discipline and training that basketball coaches employed. “Like this?” she asked the senshi, and threw a punch with the new and improved form. It felt unfamiliar, but the redhead really sounded like she knew what she was doing.

“A page is…” she began, and trailed off, because how to explain what pages were when she wasn’t quite sure herself? “I don’t actually know, because I’m the only one I’ve ever met. I mean, I’ve seen others, but it’s not like we sit down and talk about the weather.” She threw another punch, trying to get the hang of it, and maybe because she wanted Gunn to grab her wrist and correct her again. What? Getting manhandled was totally attractive.

“Have you got a name?” she asked, setting her pitcher aside so she could try throwing a punch with her left arm. She doubted anyone was going to go stealing it right now. “And is there anything else you can show me? Because, like, I keep asking for a ******** manual and everyone just shrugs at me and makes fish faces like I’m supposed to figure it out on my own, like, seriously, <********> that.”

Gunn’s fingers felt warm on Megiddo’s wrist, although she couldn’t say for certain whether they actually were. The page tried the gesture a few more times, and she figured she had a better grasp on it now than she had before. “I’ve tried finding other pages,” she sighed, slipping into a ready stance that mirrored Gunn’s as best she could without a lot of formal training. “So far, no one’s told me anything about anything besides that we’re supposed to dust youma and that the negaverse is bad, but I could have figured that s**t out on my own just as easily.”

This senshi, with what Megiddo presumed to be years of experience, was proving to be super-useful. “Alright,” she said. “On three?” Other pages might have had difficulty making the first move, but Megiddo had honed her ruthlessness in years on the basketball court and she felt confident that she would be able to hold her own against the senshi for at least a while. After all, sheer pluckiness had to be worth something. “One. Two. Three.”

On three, the page flung herself forward, propelling the punch Gunn had just shown her towards the senshi’s solar plexus.

It happened fast. “Basketball,” mustered the page, right before Gunn’s second round of hits connected, knocking the air from her lungs. It hurt in a way she hadn’t felt since state championships her freshman year at Crystal, when a girl from Richmond hit her so hard during semifinals that she hit the court and saw stars. She liked it. And she liked what she heard, too.

“You sure don’t p***y-foot around this s**t,” she said, shoving herself to her feet. She was breathing hard, forcing air back into her lungs after that gut-punch. Megiddo would overlook that the senshi had just essentially called her weak, because after that shameful display it was clear that she was. That was okay. She’d work on this and she’d get better, like Gunn was - strong and sharp and beautiful.

“I was on the Surrounding,” she said, stepping into the ready stance again and finding her footing. “I saw the DMC’s queen. She was… recruiting, or whatever it’s called. She looked at me and she passed me over. Like she thought I was too weak to be worth her time. I’m going to make her regret it.” Doing that meant getting stronger, more proficient - better. She was glad she’d met Gunn tonight, even if this hurt right now. It was worth it, to have someone who was willing to tell it like it is and help her get stronger, instead of just mincing around the hard stuff. Like they kill us, so wasn’t it fair that blood demanded blood?

“I have a weapon,” she said, conjuring her pitcher into her hands. “Broke a captain’s nose with this a few weeks ago. But if you want to stick to unarmed combat, then let’s go again.” If fists were good enough for Gunn, she reasoned, flicking the pitcher back into the ether. “I want to learn,” she said. “And if you hurt me, it’s okay. It’ll heal.” She raised her fists - ready and willing.

Megiddo nodded against the ground, gritting her teeth. Despite appearances, she was loving every second of this. She’d been missing no-holds-barred violence from her life for well over two years now, ever since leaving the Crystal Academy basketball team. Additionally, it certainly didn’t hurt that Gunn was flat-out awesome. Megiddo couldn’t decide if she wanted to be her, or make out with her. Probably both. Both was good.

She pushed herself to her feet and brushed her hands off against her skirt. “Okay,” she said seriously. The senshi’s threat sounded serious, and she was going to step it up. She’d watched Gunn for two rounds now, and although the older girl clearly had some serious training, Megiddo was starting to think she had at least one move pinned down pretty well.

She lunged left and then ducked right, and when that seemed to catch Gunn off guard, managed to pop up and catch the Senshi’s fist before it could catch her in the stomach again. “Ha!” gasped Megiddo, which she realized was a mistake as soon as she said it. She shoved Gunn’s fist away, but then the Senshi swept her feet out from under her again, and Megiddo went down. The page grunted as she hit the ground and looked up at the Senshi, waiting for judgement.

“Better?” she asked, pushing herself to her feet. It hurt, sure, but she didn’t want to give away just how much it hurt. She wanted to keep going. This was the most fun she’d had since awakening.

Megiddo could deal with not being coddled. Being the youngest, with both parents working full time, got you used to faint praise and unmeetable standards. “I thought we were working strictly unarmed,” she said, and did not bring out her pitcher just yet. If Gunn wanted a feint, then Megiddo was going to give her a feint. She was pretty sure that she could manage it quick enough - and even if the senshi wasn’t giving her credit for effort, then at least she’d know it was something to work on.

“Again,” declared the page, relishing the soreness from earlier hits. She assumed the ready stance, and on Gunn’s mark, swerved out of the way of a grab, called forth her pitcher, and swung it around as she spun on her heels. With a clang, it connected with the senshi’s hip. Megiddo grinned and went for another swing, but this time Gunn caught her wrist and shoved her backwards into the wall.

“I don’t think they’ll cut me any slack,” she said, pushing off the wall. Her ribs hurt, but Megiddo wasn’t about to admit that. She wanted to keep fighting for as long as Gunn would spare her the time. “I agree with you - I want them dead. I survived the surrounding by dumb luck. I survived Lesath abducting me because Acubens showed up. I don’t want to be helpless like that ever again.”

She flicked the pitcher into the ether again, planning to practice the quick draw some more in the next bout. “Teach me,” said the Page, “And I’ll find a way to make it worth your time.”

Megiddo’s smile faltered. What? They were done already? She supposed that having work in the morning was a worthy excused on the senshi’s behalf, though. “Right,” she said gamely. “I’ll see you then.” She was looking forward to it, even, in a way that she’d never been truly excited about knight stuff before.

She turned, starting to hurry home, but turned back to the senshi one last time. “Thanks so much,” said Megiddo, and then, ribs aching with every breath, she raced home.