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She wouldn't outright admit it, but patrolling was a lot easier now that she was super.

Not that she wasn't capable of handling things as a first level chibi, of course, but she felt more capable now. She was faster. She was stronger. She had better magic. She could pass her speed onto others now! How cool was that! Anser could make like a superhero strike force or something--

She paused in her tracks as she noticed the pulse of what was a similar aura as hers nearby.

Oh! Another super!

It didn't quite feel the same as hers, and she was beginning to learn there was a distinction between chibi and not-chibi auras, however small; the aura she felt on her radar was one of a not-chibi aura. Probably meant that whoever it belonged to was older than she was, though she had noticed that there were some senshi that were of a similar age as her that weren't chibi.

Hm.

No matter! Maybe they could team up and get some patrolling done. Anser changed her course and made a beeline towards the aura, eager to maybe get started on her superhero strike force idea. (Or just to have someone to patrol with, honestly; Anser preferred company, even if anxiety and determination forced her to come out alone.)

Once the senshi came into view, Anser stopped in her tracks.

Something was familiar about her, but yet not. The long coat, check. Sailor looking pirate hat or whatever it was, check. White hair, check. But the white hair was in a braid and not down to the ground, she had no butt wings, and there was no terrible supervillain aura pulsing off of her that needed to be dealt with before it hurt more people. This was a superhero, like her. A fellow senshi. In white. And not with any butt wings, so it was the same level as her, even.

Could people lose superhero levels?

Having never seen the results of purification before--though hermano had told her they existed--Anser wasn't entirely sure how to approach this. Was her mind playing tricks on her? Was this some other senshi and definitely not that terribly rude supervillain who had tried to choke her in an attempt to scare her and it definitely didn't work--

Anser clenched and unclenched her fists, bit down on her lip, and made a determination.

She would just call her name, and if she was wrong, she would be corrected!

Easy!

"Still!" snapped Anser, breaking the rest of the distance to come up to her and -- look up at her, why did she have to be as tall as her brother was?

Ha, it was Stillwaterite!

She'd show that nasty supervillain who was boss!

Wait ... she wasn't a supervillain anymore. Right. She was just a normal super senshi, like her. A superhero. A reformed supervillain? An anti-hero? Why was she now a super senshi and not an eternal senshi? Still deserved it for being evil and a supervillain, but it still left a few things up to questioning.

At least she congratulated her on her promotion. Hmph.

"Thank you!" replied Anser, spreading out her arms to show off her outfit. It was a bit more a gloat than an excited showing in the way she had shown Cybele. Just to make it a bit more clear that she was gloating, she added to it, "Look at that! We're the same level, now." And this woman had seemed to think that Anser wouldn't really get herself anywhere and she needed to go home and never come out again.

No, instead, she was fighting the supervillains and getting rewarded for it.

But they were allies now. She couldn't be all mean. Wouldn't be any better than a villain if she did that. "Sedna's better than Stillwaterite," declared Anser, with a confident grin. "Shorter, snappier. More superhero."

Anser caught the tone and couldn't help smirking just a little bit in turn. She buried it, because she was supposed to be being civil, but considering the last time they saw each other, Stillwaterite was still a self-important supervillain...

Skill sets for a superhero were not dismal. Sure, that transportation s**t was super unfair and Anser hated it, but they still had magic, and speed, and technically she could go to space even if she was currently avoiding that because her planet had a lot of--

Was she still on that patrolling alone thing? Really?

They were the same level now and she didn't see Sedna with anyone.

"Yes, I am, Sedna," responded Anser, overemphasizing her name on purpose. "Danger doesn't stop existing because I don't have partners all the time. I gotta keep patrolling." Didn't she make that clear last time? "Not like there's anyone with you until I showed up."

And besides, she had patrolling partners. Just not... Right now. She was hoping this super could patrol with her but it was... her...

She recognized that audible sigh of disappointment from almost anyone of over twenty she met. It was that sigh that showed that they didn't quite get it, or that sigh that showed that they weren't angry, just disappointed. It was a parent thing really.

It was something an older person did to a child, and considering she was fourteen, and considering the s**t she had seen, Anser was entirely tired of it.

Still, she listened to Still Sedna, initially with a rather impatient half-quirk of a smile on her face. Still, it was obvious that she was listening. Still, after a minute or so, her half-quirk of a smile turned into a more obvious frown.

Did purifications just reset someone to where they were at last they were on the right side, the good side?

Didn't matter, she guessed.

It was fair, to not want what happened to her to happen to anyone else, she guessed. That didn't mean she was happy about it. And it didn't mean Sedna had managed to understand her motivations. Hadn't she made that clear last time? It didn't matter--Chaos needed to be eliminated, at all costs. They had to be. They had to be to stop what happened to the denizens of this city. To stop what happened to Sedna. To stop what happened to her hermano--

"I almost lost family," replied Anser, shortly, turning her eyes away. "Because no one could help him. Not because he patrolled alone, but because he was a civilian."

She swallowed uncomfortably, her hands shaking just a little bit as she recounted the memory. She threw them behind her back. "I lost him for a year? Or two? I was young. He was abducted. He came back and could... see... things. The monsters."

Raina hadn't really understood, and then tensions between Ignacio and Papa got so high that Ignacio eventually opted to leave and live on his own. She didn't see him for years after that.

As a young child, all the fighting, all the abductions, all the trauma, it was anxiety-inducing.

Anser shifted her gaze back to Sedna.

"I can finally do something. And I have. I've helped at big events. I've helped at small. I've teamed up with other senshi against bigger enemies and I've driven back some lieutenants on my own. And yes, I do team up! But I also patrol alone when I can or when I can't reach others. I need to do something."

She had to.

Anser sighed, turning away.

There was a large part of her that had the instinct to respond so be it. At least she had helped where she could. At least she had been a distraction to Stillwaterite, however temporarily, from other civilians that couldn't even defend themselves. At least she had done something.

There was another part of her that knew Sedna had a point, which was admittedly why she was getting better at detecting which auras were around and trying not to approach the worst ones. But she could handle herself better now. She had more power. She had more ability. She could take on one of the supervillain captains. She could take on that girl with the super long dreads and that stupid ballerina who dared to turn her and Cybele next to each other. That was in her power now.

Anser let out a heavy sigh, partially to stabilize herself and the shaking. Deep breath. Like she was told, count to ten. One, two, three, four ...

"No, I didn't. I was hoping I could throw something at you, maybe." Anser wrung her hands. "But at that moment, I felt it would all be worth it, even to distract you from hurting others. Maybe abducting others. Like my brother."

She shook her hands out. Stop wringing them.

"But believe it or not, I've gotten better at avoiding big heavy auras like what yours was, unless I feel more people like me in the area. The sickening ones, the ones that just hurt. I get that part. I need to not charge at the big bad supervillains on my own." That was hard to admit. She was a superhero, but she wasn't at her maximum level yet. That was Cybele. That was Encke. That wasn't her, and it was infinitely frustrating. "But that doesn't mean I'm gonna stop patrolling alone when I have to."

Anser glanced up, into Sedna's eyes. "And if you admire my drive and dedication, you have to know I'm not gonna back off that."

We need to work towards overarching victories. Together.

Even if she couldn't agree with the other stuff--she had to, she had to, no matter what it took--that she could definitely agree with. She had people she was working with for a reason. It was time for Evil to stop winning. She and Cybele made a good team, she was certain of that. Begrudgingly, despite Encke's hovering, they did work pretty well together too. With her magic he basically became a lightning bolt--

"Yeah, together. I actually think we need a strike force or something. Or something like the Avengers but less likely to die from being halved instantly or whatever that plot was." She scrunched her nose in distaste. Anser liked comics, but sometimes the stories didn't make any sense. Not that she was going to stop watching those movies, but still!

Ha! She was learning! And the former supervillain admitted it!

Wait.

Was she supposed to be happy about that--

"For me, all that matters is I protect the civilians of the city, right? So no one gets abducted like my brother. Or," she gulped, "starseeded, or energy-drained, or any of that other evil stuff." And what ever happened to the rest of the people who didn't make it out of what Ignacio made it out of... "So I'll do whatever I can to help, but there's some people who I can't... Beat. By myself." She hated that, she hated that, "Yet. With Cybele I'd win of course because she's an eternal and she's awesome and Encke kicks some a**, but," Anser smirked, "I can handle supers like you now. We're evenly matched."

She couldn't give up. She couldn't.

Oh no.

Spoilers were the devil. They were almost as evil as the supervillains, but the supervillains were worse. A spoiling supervillain would be the absolute worst. She couldn't imagine a supervillain who just went around shouting the ends of movies, what a monster, did that make her the monster? She wasn't a supervillain and she definitely did not mean to spoil anything--

"I'm sorry!" exclaimed Anser, dismayed, slapping both hands over her lips for a moment. Behind her hands, she murmured, "Spoilers are the worst."

When she dropped her hands, she added, "Didn't think you hadn't seen the movies yet, but I guess that makes sense with the, uh," she circled her hand around the side of her head where her brain would be. Right. Don't talk about superhero movies. Not too hard. She would just have to make sure not to make half the comics comparisons she liked making--

That would be hard, dammit, but she wasn't going to be a spoiling supervillain!

"And yeah, I know Encke." At this, she giggled. "I've known him for a real long time. I mean, not as Encke, but," she bounced on the balls of her feet, "when he finds out I'm going patrolling he insists on coming with me. Wish he wasn't such a helicopter honestly, but at least he doesn't stop me from powering or anything. Sure he knows that wouldn't work."

Plus, if she didn't power, she couldn't transcend like him, which seemed to be a big concern of his--