Welcome to Gaia! ::

Tortuga grumbled as he pulled his green winter coat closer. Who said that it was spring? Whoever it was needed his head dunked in water and the stupid groundhog that predicted it needed to be shot. It was ******** cold out and there was even more snow predicted, although there was a silver lining about that… it wasn't predicted this far south. North was going to get slammed again. The redheaded page made a mental note to give his dad a call, check up on the old man since he stubbornly refused to retire down in Florida. “He says he was born in New York and he will die in New York,” Tortuga muttered to himself as he carefully scrambled over the missmatched rooftops of Destiny City. “Stubborn old goat,” there was more than just a ting of pride and annoyance in his quite cursing. His muttering and grumbling was mostly a way to keep himself entertained on the long and cold night. Why was he out there? To protect the city of course but since it seemed like no one else wanted to be out on such a frigid night he was basically just moving to stay warm.

“I could have been home, watching Hogan’s Heroes. Bah,” the page continued to complain quietly as he continued on his patrol. The only time he actually stopped was when he thought he sensed something or was checking on the few med kits that he had stashed in this general part of the city. His sense of danger, of chaos specifically, was poor at best, non existent at worse, but even he picked up a blip on his aural radar as he was carefully making his way through a dilapidated building after determining going over it wasn’t the safest idea, not if he didn’t want to reach the ground floor the hard way that is. Adjusting his trajectory the page headed towards the chaos signature he sensed, not really sure where it would take him or what danger it would put him in, not that he was concerned since he could take care of himself… for the most part. Tortuga chose not to count the scuffle, if you could even call it that, with the dragon lady. She was out of a lot of people’s leagues not just his.

Tortuga wove his way through the falling snow, passing empty store after empty store. There wasn’t a living soul for miles it seemed but his little internal radar said otherwise. Someone or something of the chaos persuasion was somewhere near here and getting closer with every step he took through the wintery fog. Any speculation on who or what he was heading towards was quickly squashed by a loud shout, ‘Hey!’

What was he? A horse? More than a little leery Tortuga came to a stop in a tiny empty parking lot and tried to pick out the figure of the incoming negaverse agent. Youma’s couldn’t talk so it had to be a agent right? He gaped at the order to ‘cough up his energy’ and couldn’t keep his jaw from dropping when he finally saw his opponent. A girl! Now don’t get him wrong, he didn’t have anything wrong with female fighters since his cousin could wipe the floor with his a** as could his girlfriend probably. What shocked him was how young the nega Lieutenant was. He couldn’t say he was an expert on judging people’s age but if she was old enough to legally drink he was the damn Easter Bunny.

He shut his mouth with a quiet snap as he got over his initial shock over the young girl ordering him to give up his energy. “No.” Tortuga’s response was succinct and final. There was no way he would be coughing up anything for this girl except maybe a lecture on the dangers of the city and the ‘evils’ of the negaverse. The agents he had run into so far seemed a bit bent mentally so there didn’t seem like there was a way to show them the light as it were. But this girl, she seemed more normal. Maybe she would actually understand what order was fighting so hard for. “Look sweetie,” the endearment slipped out naturally, “there is no way I’ll give you energy but if you want to talk I’ll be more then willing to do so.” Even if its cold as ******** out he mentally added as he pulled the zipped winter jacket closer about his frame.

Tortuga just stood there, his arms crossed and a blank look on his face as the girl stormed up to him. He knew what a pissed off female could do but he still didn’t think this particular one could do more then spit and hiss like a peeved kitten. Besides she was like him, no magic to speak of just a lame ‘weapon’. They would end up punching each other and actually fight and if it came to that Tortuga felt like he had the upper hand. Not that he wanted to hit the kid. It just seemed wrong.

His high handed option took a rapid dive when the girl sucker punched him right in the face. Purple eyes teared up and a hand came up to protect the sore appendage on his face as he stumbled back out of range of the chick. That ******** hurt. Honestly he shouldn’t be surprised since Maia likely would have reacted the same, she would have made it hurt a hell of a lot more too. It still hurt though. It wasn’t like he used any insults or stuff. Sweetie was a perfectly fine nickname, a bit condescending but it wasn’t like he used anything insulting. Geeze. There were alot more insulting pet names he could have used, most would have gotten him punched by every female in entire his family tree…. Twice. But Sweetie wasn’t one of them, not really.

Tortuga tried to keep his eyes on the girl but she was more or less a blurry shape, between his watery eyes and the snow it was hard to make out more than her form, as he checked his nose. Not broken, thank goodness. It hurt like hell but it wasn’t broken. He would have some colorful bruises though, that was going to be fun to explain. The redheaded page swiped the tears from his eyes before scrubbing the blood off with the sleeve of his jacket, his nose had already marked the garment for the trash so what did it matter if he spread the blood abit more. “Now look here you! I’m not a pig, sexist or otherwise!” Annoyed and insulted Tortuga started towards the negaverse lieutenant only to come up short of striking range as he got a eye full of her weapon. “Is that…. A Beanie Baby? Seriously?!?” The page could only stare incredulously at the toy, a snicker slipping out from his mouth before he clamped down on the urge to laugh. His own weapon wasn’t much better, a brass whistle on a necklace, but at least it wasn’t a freaking ‘dollie’.

“It’s. A. Toy.” Tortuga bit out, annoyed at the douchebag comment. There was no need for the insults, especially since he was trying to give the young woman a chance to see that picking a fight with him, someone bigger and stronger, wasn’t a good idea. Granted the way he was doing it was pretty dumb since it was nearly guaranteed to piss the negaverser off even further but no one ever said Tortuga was very good at handling people. People hurt and injured yeah sure he wasn’t half bad with them, rational people sure, but kids who were too big for their britches… not so much.

The page would have tossed a quip back at the negaverser, honestly she looked like a kid trying to dress up like a pinup doll without all the curves, when said nega reached for his nose and Tortuga reacted instinctivly. He smacked her hand away and followed through with a punch towards her midsection with his other hand, just as he had been taught. It wasn’t until he had already reacted that the tall redhead realized what he had just done and did his best to pull the punch. It might still land but it shouldn’t hurt as much as it would have with his full force behind it. Tortuga really hatted hitting girls, women, females… people of the opposite sex, whatever you want to call them. It felt wrong.

Yeah, yeah. Women’s empowerment and all that crap. They can do anything guys can and do it better. Hell, he really did have quite a few females in his life who could kick his a** six ways to sunday but that didn’t mean that he liked hitting girls. He will do it because he has to, because it is necessary, but not because he wanted too. “Sorry about that,” he muttered absently as he tried to disengage from her. It wouldn’t do to accidently cause more damage.

Tortuga stiffened when the nega girl patted his shoulder, he was expecting something a little more violent than just a pat, so when nothing came of it he just stared at the girl. Any surprise he felt was hidden behind his purple gaze but he couldn’t keep the sadness from flashing over his face when he finally caught on to her stance. She was standing there trying to put herself on display… A kid who had to be like ten years his junior, it was just creepy. And gross. And rather sad. What did it say about her self confidence to stand there like that? What did it say about their society that taught her to do that? If she was his little sister he would have tanned her hide by now. “Unless you have a bazooka hidden in that toy then it's pointless to use it! My god! You picked a fight with an older, taller, male with a ******** dollie. Did you really think it would end well? I’m not saying that I’m ‘big and strong and smart’ as you put it but you need to look at the -” He cut himself off as it finally hit him what she was doing.

With a muttered curse he broke the contact and stepped out of her range once more. He forgot that all the negaverse needed to drain someone was a touch. “Sneaky,” Tortuga chided the girl and himself. He needed to remember that this female wasn’t justs some young girl but a chaos fighter. No matter how much he just wanted to shove her in a winter coat and send her home. Why the hell was she out here on this bloody a** cold night anyway?!? He didn’t want to fight her. Hell he didn’t really like fighting in general, he would do it to protect himself and others but it wasn’t his first desire. He was a bloody healer for God’s sake! “It is cold! It is wet! We are both currently standing in what amounts to a snowstorm and your getting bent out of shape over a stupid word! Go home kid! Go home and really look over your life in ‘the Big Bad Negaverse’ because from where I’m standing they are just using you like some disposable battery! Make one wrong move and it will all blow up in your face.” The world might not have been perfect, far from it as far as Tortuga was concerned, but anything had to be better than being chattel for the negaverse. Unknowing chattel too!

Oh my god was this what a highschool teacher felt like? Tortuga could only stare at the girl in front of him as she basically waved him off like he was some grumpy old fart. It wasn’t like he was 100, he was only 29 for christ sake... and who the hell was Felicia???? It was frustrating and grating at the same time. She was just so… so… young. There wasn’t really a better description for the negaverse officer standing in front of him and that was quite sad. Nothing he said here would get through to her. Not right now at least. As much as it grated on him, both as a order fighter and an adult, she had a point. The best move for him to take now is to just go home but that left her out here in the snow, possibly preying on someone else that was stupid enough to be out in this snow.

Damned if he was, damned if he wasn’t. If he didn’t leave he had a feeling they would both be standing here until the world implodes or at least until daybreak. That was something he wanted to avoid. Mostly because he was already cold, she couldn’t be much better, and he wanted to get some sleep. The idea of standing here like some ******** up ‘mexican standoff’ was just as bad as leaving the nega girl behind if he left like she suggested. Rock, meet hard place.

“Fine. Whatever, apparently there isn’t anything more to say here.” Tortuga turned and walked away. He was planning on going just far enough to actually barely feel the aura of the nega, with luck since he really kind of stunk at it, and keep an ‘eye’ on her to make sure she wasn’t going to make someone elses’ night a pain in the a**. He was seriously rethinking ever becoming a parent after this particular conversation.