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Usually Wolframite didn’t stay out this late at night since he was always too tired to stay up, and followed a set schedule of being out for only so many hours at night before heading back home to go to bed. It was vital he still show no signs of being exhausted at school or home and alert both the faculty and his mother of what he was doing. It was only recently that he was testing out taking naps in the day so that he could go out later in the night, and the new patrol hour was proving beneficial. There were only a certain class of people that hanged around at his hour, all of which were never up to anything good, be it senshi, Negaverse, or a normal person. What it did mean was that the no good people he saw during this hour were exactly the ones he wanted to get rid of. If you weren’t out this late buying groceries for your pregnant wife, you were probably selling drugs or getting drunk. It also meant that it was easier to spot cops since there was barely any traffic, and plenty of vacant alleyways to pull someone in.

Still, it didn’t mean he could go after big prey, which made spotting Sheldon a target he could go after. Young, out late despite a curfew that he should have listened to, and smoking something that wasn’t tobacco qualified him for starseed extraction. Seeing as the kid was probably high out of his mind, he didn’t even hide the fact he was coming, strolling up towards the boy.

The smell was intense, and he recoiled, bringing up a sleeve to cover his nose. The last thing he wanted was to breathe it in! “What do we have here? Enjoying yourself?” What a waste of life and brain cells. Some people just didn’t have any respect for their own bodies.

Even given the light pollution the sleeping city still gave off at night, star gazing was still doable near the heart of it. Sheldon's smile remained as it was as he noted the constellation and star names he still remembered and took a few hits of his joint here and there, letting the only cloudy gaze to interrupt being of his own doing.

Sheldon didn't even looked down when the younger boy addressed him. "Of course I am, or I wouldn't be smiling." He replied, inhaling a good amount of the moderate tasting weed and releasing the smoke slowly through his nose. It wasn't often he ran into too many people this late, but given these nightly binges were incredibly rare and he would have most likely continued to go about just staring upward. His last encounters with people sprung to mind as well as Sailor Libra's words, damn them, and he tilted his head to look down upon the lieutenant.

It could be said that Sheldon Hobbes was a giggly stoner more often than not, but something had to really get him going. And oh, that outfit.. it was something out of like something by Dickens or Blackadder (bows! frills! he looked so proper!) and the green haired boy just lost it. Laughing hard enough to fall back on the grassy bed the wall he was sitting on was trying to hold in. "Wow!" Was all he could exclaim though fits of laughter.

What Rose was hearing didn’t sound promising. In fact, it sounded suspiciously like the short guy had lost his temper and was taking his anger out on the other guy. Chancing another peak around the corner of the building, her suspicions were confirmed. There was a strange, niggling feeling that she couldn’t shake, one that made her hair stand on end. She did occasionally listen to the news, and she knew that people in weird costumes were an indicator that something was probably up. She reached in her pants for her cell phone, but her fingers brushed something that was certainly not her cell phone.

Pulling the object out, she realized that it was that stick-thing. The same stick-thing she that had featured in one of her dreams, that by some freak chance she had found in her pants’ pocket the next day. She enjoyed denying what the stick’s existence indicated and was perfectly happy to remain in denial. Granted she had taken to carrying it around, but that was because she saw it as some sort of strange lucky charm, not some magical wand that could actually do… stuff.

Well, until now that was. Clutching the little stick, she decided that this would be a good time to test it out. Actually, this would be a good time if the little stick was actually a magical wand that could do stuff, otherwise she wasn’t certain she’d like what attention her shout would likely draw.

“ Pomona Power, Make-up!”

Pomona couldn’t decide what to feel when she opened her eyes and saw that her clothes had been replaced with the flashy outfit from her dream.

‘ Not a dream.’

Deciding that shock and any other mental or emotional issues would have to wait – or, that she at least needed to try and ignore them – she took a deep breath and slid around the corner, jogging about half-way towards the two other figures.

“ Hey, what do you think you’re doing? Leave him alone.”

It was a welcomed state to feel someone squirm and wiggle under his soles, and while he had only wanted to hit him a few times, he slipped inot a moment of overindulgence and had some fun. It wasn’t like he was damaging a body that wasn’t already self-abused from what this cretin had done to it, and he doubted he was shortening the lifespan of the world’s next great mind. This was only proven when the boy, between trying to drag himself away from his stomping, tried to defend his habit.

“Oh really. I heard these cool people also die very young.” He gave another stomp to make his point. “Does this feel cool?” While he could go on, he settled his leg back on the ground, and kneeled down, turning the boy to lay flat on his back. What a easy catch today. A starseed like this was doing no good in a body that couldn’t appreciate it, and he was probably just going to wind up doing something else later down the line and dieing in a gutter. Now he got to die in a nice mulch patch and serve as some useful fertilizer.

Dipping down, he reached in, watching his hand go away as it dipped down. Starseed retrieval was like trying to pull an elusive rabbit from a hat, but eventually you found it. His fingers only brushed the crystal when his head snapped up as a senshi found him, and he gave a very annoyed groan at seeing her. They were like rats, one in every alleyway, and it was really annoying. What were they doing? Breeding somewhere or just splitting off from a main blob? Whatever the case, there were too many of them.

Slipping his hand away from the boy’s chest and leaving the starseed alone for now, he rose up and pulled his shirtsleeve back down. “We’re just having a little intervention for his own good.” Wolframite glanced down at the beaten boy and looked back up, smiling. “Why don’t you run along, Rosey, before you hurt yourself.” Or he did. Whichever one came first.

This child has been brainwashed, was oddly the first thought that came to mind when the first bit of oxygen managed to reach his brain. Sheldon seized this short opportunity to inhale as deeply as he could once Wolframite's foot stopped kicking and exhale in a fit of coughing. There was the realization that there was a metallic taste in his mouth, overpowering the remnants of marijuana and really making him nauseous now.

"The Rolling Stones," he hoarsely responded to the short boy's question; still trying to defend his ideas with a name. His eyes squeezed shut as his mouth moved to rattle off more, but they fell in incoherent mumbles before dying off in a gurgled gasp as that hand reached into his chest. As brief as it was, Sheldon's eyes snapped open wide and pained in an instant, if there was a scream from his opened mouth it fell on death's ears. His whole body went numb and cold and his arms were ready to thrash before warmth spread back into his body and the hand was gone.

He was once again a limp pile of limbs, his coughing more hectic and breathing in gulping heaves from that slightest of moments in which his star seed was touched. The pain that had originated from the foot abuse now seeming to have doubled, Sheldon was vaguely aware one of his hands had raised to his chest, clutching his shirt where the lieutenant had reached in. The female voice he had thought he imagined was just to his side, yelling at the short boy and he hazily gazed over to the bright red ..... senshi.

It had to be a senshi, they were the only ones who seemed to dress so shiny. Sheldon shut his eyes again, hacking up a lung and tried to get his body to move.

“ Kill you? That’s a bit extreme.”

It was a good question though; a very good question. To be honest, Rose had only thought to stop him. She hadn’t given much thought as to how she’d stop him, especially if he didn’t want to. She supposed she could throw some peppers at him, but at this point she thought that fists would be more effective.

She was torn, trying to decide what to say and do when the bad guy made a jump rope appear. She blinked, but it was still there, unchanged: a freakin’ jump rope. She couldn’t help but blurt out the first thing that came to her mind,“ Is all this magic stuff this lame?”

Well, that wasn’t quite the fear-inspiring, thought-provoking, or anger-invoking statement she had hoped for, but she was curious. The worst that would happen is that he’d figure out that she had no clue what she was doing – though she thought that would’ve been obvious by now – but maybe, just maybe he’d actually answer her questions. She’d really like some answers.

“ I mean, I guess your outfit is magic, but those bows aren’t exactly scary, are they? And seriously, a jump rope? Shouldn’t you at least have a cool dagger?”

Of course, if the bad guy did have a cool dagger, Rose would’ve been rather jealous, considering her magic “weapons.” She was somewhat jealous of his outfit as it was. Granted, it wasn’t the most stylish thing she’d ever seen, but at least it covered him, unlike her useless outfit, and with the removal of the bows it would probably be intimidating.

“ ‘course, my magic stuff isn't any better.” She added as an afterthought, waiting to see if he’d answer.

There was probably a rule somewhere that said “Thou shalt not discuss the magic stuff,” but the only witness was a pothead, so Rose wasn’t really concerned about that. No, she was more concerned about the serious possibility that she’d have to fight this guy, because he looked all too happy to keep hurting the pothead. She inched a bit closer, but then stopped. She really, really wanted some answers, and she doubted that appearing aggressive would improve the chances of her getting them from him.

He could feel a migraine start from the bridge of his nose and start spiking inside of his head. It was always with the weapon and the outfit. What did people not get about there being no decision in regards to the uniform given, or did the senshi have some special privilege to pick their own outfits out. If that was the case, a lot of senshi were rather indecent with their ideas and favored gaudy colors. They were one step away from jumping on stage and dancing against a pole.

“Okay. That’s enough. First off, this here is a uniform, and a pretty damn good one at that! I happen to think it’s VERY nice, and I don’t need you insulting any of it, especially the bows.” Damnit! He liked them. He gave up trying to pretend he didn’t. They were cute as hell and he wasn’t going to take people putting down his outfit any longer. Not from a senshi or from this boy who had decided just to laugh at it. “Secondly, I don’t see you waving around any battle axes so I’d shut up about the jump rope. This here is a dangerous weapon issued to me by the Negaverse. It’s a Negaverse weapon. It’s dangerous, damnit, and I’ll hit you in the face with it if you keep saying it isn’t. Sure, it’s not sparkling, bright lights and invisible shields, but we can’t all be gifted with the act of shouting stupid phrases to make stuff happen. Some of us have to work for our attacks.” Stupid magical, senshi attacks. How much effort did it really take to yell something as opposed to hitting your enemy with a jump rope! Not a lot! And damnit, he swore at her. He hated when he slipped up like that and swore. He was already going down that slippery slope of bad language.

While she was a rookie, she had at least properly distracted him from the boy on the ground, who was no longer being crushed by the boy’s foot but instead was just being used as a gentle footrest, making Sheldon look like a deer that the Lieutenant managed to shoot down and was now posing with his new prize. When the boy rolled, Wolfram hadn't even looked down, instead just setting his foot down on the ground as he continued to talk to the senshi. All the while his catch was moving at a snail's pace farther and farther way.