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Jeanne's performance in the little bootcamp had intrigued Gunn, and so when Gunn next went on patrol, she didn't call Megiddo; she called Penthesilea, senshi of War, and said, "Hey, want to go kill someone?"

She was a little excited to see a super senshi show up. She didn't much like babysitting sailor scouts or pages, for all it was a deeply necessary part of building some sort of camaraderie among the side of Order; it limited who she could target, limited the amount of Negaversers they could take down in a single night, and that was unacceptable. "I hear good things," she said. "War, huh? Almost as good a sphere as wildfires." She'd heard some pretty hilarious ones over her time as a senshi. Frost? Pahahaha. Honesty? Don't make her laugh. At least War sounded badass, although her powers might not measure up.

Powers didn't measure up pretty often, in Gunn's experience. "Shall we dance, Sailor Penthesilea?"

"You'd think wildfires would be straightforward," said Gunn. She would give her left foot for a straightforward firestarting power. None of this 'waiting to see another fire' bullshit. "Whatever god's out there, it doesn't much like senshi. If it did, we wouldn't have such s**t powers."

She rolled her eyes and focused on her stupidly faulty inner radar. "I'm not particularly good at power sensing," she said, after a moment, "Actually, I suck at it. But I think I sense something worth looking at to the northeast." Suiting action to words and leading by example, Gunn darted forward, following the maybe-Lieutenant level signature. Could be a really weak Captain, but… who knew, at this distance?

Gunn sighed. "Well, that's why I'm doing my boot camps," she said. "Won't make up for none of them having any sense, but it'll hopefully make up for them failing the s**t out of magic school with the rest of us." Seriously, where was Hogwarts for senshi? There had to be some way to improve on their powers.

She dropped from the rooftops when she thought they were close to the signature. Fortunately for Gunn's hardass rep, there they were: a pair of Lieutenants. "One for each of us, Penthesilea," said Gunn. "You want the one with the dumbass blow-up hammer or the one with the stick?"

That, Gunn thought, would be actually ******** hilarious. She would absolutely be down for watching Penthesilea whale on a lieutenant with an inflatable mallet. Like, on the level of hilarious antics she would queue up to watch forty times on youtube.

"Sounds great," she said, and that was when one of the Lieutenants chose to lunge at her. Unluckily, it was Mallet Man: She spun out of his way and kicked him towards Penthesilea, then turned her attention towards her own target. "So my squire's got a pretty high opinion of you," she said to Penthe, wrestling her Lieutenant into a headlock. "What are your intentions towards my little girl, huh?" Which was rich. Keren was two inches taller than Gunn. "I don't have a shotgun, but I can set you on fire if I want."

"Nah, I'm pretty sure Chaos just does that," said Gunn cheerfully. "Sucks all the brains right out of them." She splayed a hand on her terrified Lieutenant's forehead and squeezed it until she felt bones begin crunch together. "What's this," she asked, in a ridiculous croon. "A brain-sucking leech! What's it doing? Staaarving."

She broke the Lieutenant's neck, easily, as if it were dry kindling. Oh, the strength bonuses that came with being a third stage! Too bad this boy would never learn of them. "Well, good," she said. "I would be upset if you did. Since you don't, I suppose we're cool." She smiled, as if that was a funny joke. It kind of was, to her. "A more serious topic: What do you want to accomplish, as a senshi?"

"Planets are a great big load of bullshit," said Gunn, rummaging in her fuku. Granted, a lot of people looked down on her for carrying a lighter, but when your attacks were as lame as hers, you learned quick what you needed to make things effective. "Kill him and bring him over," she said, "I like watching you smack him, but like, we gotta burn the bodies or people'll find 'em too fast."

The Zippo opened with a click! and she knelt to touch the blue-orange flame to the edge of the Lieutenant's uniform. "Always kinda wigs me out when they turn human again," she said. "Anyway, planets are a total shitshow, but like, to each her own. The group thing, though. I advocate teamwork and all, but any kind of..." She waved a hand in the air. "Team... initiative... with structure? That's dangerous. Like, that's how they make Dark Mirror senshi. Made."

"Gunn Wildfire Propagation," Gunn muttered, once Penthesilea's Lieutenant had joined the pile. The flame exploded, larger and brighter, with a dull roar. Gunn grabbed Penthe's arm and tugged her back a few paces.

She shrugged. "Like I said. Wigs me out. Anyway--the Dark Mirror Court was once the Blood Moon Court. My court. But... Ares, our leader, she got caught up in despair or whatever, and she found her own little piece of Chaos. And structured groups always seem to end that way." Always. She sighed, a little. "It's easy to get hungry for power, and then think your own rules don't apply to you."

"If you don't mind," said Gunn, "I'll stick close. Keep an eye on you, as it were. Like, I read this book about a dude who thought he was safe and could trust all his allies, but like, no. No, that wasn't how it worked." That was never how it worked.

"But if you think you can handle being stuck with me, I'll back you up," she offered. "I'm not much of a leader, either."