Welcome to Gaia! ::

Anser hissed.

She wasn't a snake, but it didn't matter; her blood was slamming in her ears, her fist was clenching and unclenching, and she was staring down what was already a rather injured snake monster. Hissing was suited, right? That's what she thought it was anyway. She was pretty sure it had a hood on it like a cobra, or something like that. Anser didn't know, all she knew was that it was very clearly a monster and she had come upon it terrorizing some poor civilian.

And Anser was a superhero, so it was her job to crush whatever threatened the civilians.

Admittedly, it was too bad Cybele wasn't there. They were really good at colliding and dusting things. Nicodemus wasn't there either, so he couldn't watch her in action like he wanted to. So now she was stuck by herself and she was definitely 100% winning and they were definitely missing it.

Anser yelped as the cobra monster thing swept its tail under her legs and knocked her over, legs kicking up in the air as she fell flat on her face.

Okay, so she wasn't exactly winning.

But if she gave up, who knew what would happen? She was a superhero, so she was going to win!

... She had to.

There was no other option.

If Anser got even an inkling this other woman thought she was a child, she would be giving her what-for.

As it was, though, Anser struggled to her feet, wobbling as she stared down the monster in front of her. She needed to try and do something, because if she lost, this terrible thing would just terrorize more civilians, and that would mean she wasn't doing her job, and maybe people would die, more people than had already died, and the idea of that made her heart jump into her throat so she prepared herself to run at the cobra and honestly just attempt to tackle it and she readied herself for that moment--

And then she jumped back when there was very suddenly a different form in front of her.

The pulse was chaotic, stronger than she had ever felt before, except in that terrible Night Circus. It burned, and Anser immediately felt the urge to extinguish it, because it felt like a much stronger threat than the Crocodile Man ever did. How many people had this person kill--

Oh.

Anser watched as the cobra monster in front of her went from being an active threat to quite nearly two halves of a former cobra monster.

She wasn't entirely sure what to say.

Or do.

For the moment, the fourteen-year-old Chibi Sailor Anser just stared, mouth agape.

Her mind was going into a full on meltdown, maybe.

This didn't fit. This woman was a member of the Negaverse, or that Dark Mirror Court or whatever she didn't totally know the difference. But she was supposed to be evil, and on the side of the monsters. She was supposed to be helping the monsters. She needed to be eliminated. She probably had killed people, a lot of people, because the pulse she gave off definitely felt like the pulse of a supervillain with way too much experience under their belt.

But by the same token, whoever this was had just taken out the monster with two swipes of her axe, dusted it, disappeared it just like Cybele might, like Anser might on a better day.

When the evil not-so-evil woman looked at Anser, she was still staring, not saying much, definitely leaving herself open for attack.

When Anser realized that was the case, she suddenly shook herself out of it and stood warily.

She wasn't going to attack the woman, right? She had just, uh. Technically saved her. She guessed. Not that she needed it, right? And she had just taken out a monster, which made her not ... bad ... right now.

What was she supposed to do with this?!

Finally, Anser asked, nervously, "Is this a trick?"

Anser didn't relax, necessarily, when the woman said no. She wasn't new at this. (Well, she was sorta new at this, but she had the experience of several months of being a superhero, several big bads, and comic books on her side--) Letting her guard down entirely was just asking to get attacked. Even if it seemed like this woman was relatively safe for the moment, considering it seemed like she was willing to acknowledge she looked evil. Black bodice and all.

-- Wait did she just call her young?

Anser bit back a groan at that one.

"I'm not a child," grumbled Anser, in turn, because she was fourteen now, not four. There was a distinct difference. She was a teenager. She went to high school. She had more freedoms. No one had tried to babysit her in years. Some people expected her to start showing interest in other people now, too, but honestly that was just gross-- "I'm fourteen."

She cleared her throat. Anyway.

Apparently this woman's name was Stillwaterite. She had figured out that the -ite thing usually meant that this was an agent, which made her part of the Negaverse. At least she knew that much now. Maybe she could figure out what her motivations were...

Anser finally answered with, "Sailor Anser." She opted to leave her sphere out for now even though that would have been her full title, partially because the other woman did, and partially because she was still suspicious.

Anser wasn't dumb. She knew when older people referred to her as so young, they were referring to her as a child. When Still took the time to clarify that she said she was young and not a child, Anser huffed, because she didn't buy it.

Especially until she followed it up with the eighteen nonsense.

"Yeah, well, I'm a superhero. Probably more mature than most of those eighteen-year-olds," grumbled Anser in turn, crossing her arms under her chest and briefly averting her eyes. That only lasted for a moment, though, because she couldn't take her eyes off the not currently acting villainous supervillain in front of her, and so, she quickly looked back at her, watching her movements. She couldn't be sure when the woman would decide to attack. Probably when she let her guard down. Averting her eyes was letting her guard down.

Anser dropped her arms from her chest. Better be ready to swing if needed.

At the question of how long she had been a senshi, Anser squinted. She guessed that was okay to answer. "Seven months." She remembered when she met that gorgeous guardian cat on that fateful day in February, and her mouth spread into a grin for a moment -- before very suddenly becoming a thin line again. She clenched and unclenched her fist nervously. "I patrol with people sometimes, but when there's things threatening the civilian populace," too many comic books, this one, "I can't just let it go, patrol buddy or not!"

She was very fiery about this, and glared at Still, for a moment.

"It's my job to protect people!"

She could finally save people. She liked having Cybele. Liked having Nicodemus. Couldn't stop patrolling, with or without them. She could do something to help.

Had to.

At the mention of guardian cats, Anser's eyes lit up... before her face became steely again. She wasn't going to let herself relax. She couldn't let her guard down. There was no reason to trust her, even if she wasn't necessarily making any moves to make any harm.

Which just frustrated her, because she was a villain, what was she doing asking her these things she was supposed to be terrorizing people--

"I was, yeah! She was very nice and told me a lot of stuff. And I have a guardian cat friend too, he rides around on my shoulder sometimes." Anser thought she had gotten a lot of information from them, honestly. The superhero comics also helped, because it gave her an idea of what superheroing was really all about. But she already knew what she was supposed to do, really. The Cosmos had granted her special powers to protect the city from the harm that had befallen it. She could stop people from dying. She had to.

Maybe she could stop what happened to her--

At the gesturing to the now dusted remains of the monster, Anser huffed in annoyance. She was fine, and she would have ended it eventually. She had managed to do some damage to it. And besides, "I did protect someone," murmured Anser, and her voice was quieter, now. "That monster was attacking a young mom, and she was able to run away when I distracted it." She took in a deep breath, unclenching her fingers, tapping them against her legs. "I'll be fine."

She had to be.

"There's not always other people available."

Anser wanted them to be available at all times. She felt jealous and upset when they weren't. But she wasn't an idiot.

Anser crossed her arms under her chest again, partially because she was growing agitated, and partially because she was nervous. Pulling her arms in closer to herself made her feel safer, and the not-villain villain Still didn't seem to actually be doing anything at the moment.

She still couldn't stop herself from wavering, taking a half-step back and then forward again. If it was because she was pondering Still's words, it didn't take her long to respond with a sharp, determined, "Yes." It absolutely would have been worth it. If Anser could stop what happened to other people she had known from happening to anyone else, even just one person, to her, it was worth it.

She glanced to the side, for a moment, before her paranoid brain reminded her that she couldn't take her eyes off Still, once again, couldn't risk it. Nervously, she dropped her arms from her body again, wavering back and forth from her toes to her heels in an attempt to get rid of her anxious energy.

It was weird this villain was just talking. Why? She didn't understand it. Was this one of the situations where the supervillain was just trying to understand the motivations of the superhero? Considering she seemed to be questioning her at every turn, it made sense. Maybe the supervillain just needed to understand that nothing she was going to say was going to work. She needed to see that passion.

"And anyway, my family has been hurt enough," responded Anser, narrowing her eyes. "They're part of the reason why I'm out here.

"One less monster is one less monster who will harm people."

"Yes, they have. We all have."

Including this supervillain, whether she knew it or not. But she was, honestly, part of the cause of it. Why was she even talking to her? It wasn't like a supervillain was about to have a "coming into light" moment, or something. Was that even possible? Anser quietly huffed to herself, shifting from one foot to another again. She wanted to fight. She wanted to run. She wanted to shut the villain up.

The concept of devastating her family almost went over her head. The concept of something happening to her family hit her too deeply.

"I have support," replied Anser, and her tone was even, despite the anxiety boiling inside her. "I told you already, support isn't always there. And I'm not gonna just walk away and let people be hurt by the monsters your side sends out."

The concept of the monsters coming back was horrifying--how did they actually destroy these monsters if, after dusting them, they just returned? Maybe that was why this fight was still going. She'd have to figure out how to end them, permanently--

"And if the monsters are just gonna keep coming back, then I just gotta keep fighting. Maybe you villains should stop sending monsters out."