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Even if Europa didn't say so, Babylon knew she'd drawn the short straw on patrol partners. The senshi of the deep didn't play favorites, but he knew he was still redeeming herself in her eyes - and everyone else's, for that matter. The squire had been taking himself more seriously for months now, but the response from his allies had been hardly immediate. The glossy-haired girl in front of him had been treating him with the same sort of vague condescension all night that one usually reserved for under-performing lab partners.

Europa was unaware of how the squire behind her thought she felt about him. She'd been focused for the better half of an hour on tracking a runaway youma through the winding paths of the power substation, and the creature had infuriatingly disappeared. "You see anything?" she asked Babylon sharply, turning to look at him. The squire shook his head.

"Maybe it got electrocuted," he said.

"Or maybe it's chewing on a wire and about to start a citywide blackout!" replied the senshi, looking sharply towards the coils of cable above their heads. Babylon switched his lantern to his other hand. "Keep looking!" ordered the senshi.

They continued, edging down the narrow paths with desperate carefulness, but the youma simply refused to be found. In front of him, Europa drew to a halt. Babylon paused.

"Do you sense that?" the senshi asked, frowning. Now that she mentioned it, Babylon did feel an immense crackle of dark energy running through the air.

"Yeah," he agreed. "Like a storm cloud."

"More like a hurricane," replied the senshi, starting to move again. Europa didn't like that immensity at all. She knew what an eternal corrupted and a general both felt like, and this energy signature was even larger than that. Whatever was drawing close was immensely strong, and had likely already detected the pair of superheroes. "We should get out of here."

"What about the Youma?" asked Babylon, picking up his pace to match hers as she moved faster through the thicket of electrical equipment.

"Forget the youma," snapped Europa, the huge amount of chaos energy nearby making her anxious. "What direction is that coming from? We should try to distance ourselves from it-"

The squire followed her lead, because he certainly wasn't experienced enough in these matters to come up with a plan.

Babylon raised his lantern to eye level, casting blue light on the approaching officer. Appearances were deceiving - the dark energy rolling off this kid was off the charts, and yet he wasn't physically all that imposing. He stood the same height as Babylon, who was notedly a hobbit, but if the squire had to guess he'd say the blue-haired Negaverser might weigh a good twenty pounds less than him. They had never met before, but Europa seemed to recognize him.

"Seems like you're doing well for yourself, Zinkenite," said the senshi of the deep, eyes flashing in the lantern light. It had been a long time since she'd laid eyes on the negaverser before her, and they'd both powered up since then. Him more than her, apparently. "We were just leaving," she declared, and shot Babylon a look that ought to have conveyed that he was not, under any circumstances, to let his name slip. Knowledge was power, and the less the Negaverse knew about you or your abilities the safer you were and the more of an advantage you had. She'd run too high a profile for them to miss her name or her pesky powers, but Babylon would stay anonymous if she could help it.

Grabbing hold of the squire's wrist, Europa edged around the intersection, positioning the pair at the mouth of the wider path. She was going to get both herself and her teammate out of this encounter alive and unharmed if she could manage it - even if she ached for information on Zinkenite's new form.

Babylon tensed, although he followed Europa's lead. Under the General King's sharp gaze, he doubted that there was any way out of here without a fight. Luckily, a lantern to the face tended to shut most people up, and he'd be more than happy to wipe that smug smile off the other boy's face if the situation called for it.

Zinkenite's certainty that he'd walk away from here with Babylon's name just doubled Europa's resolve not to reveal it. She'd keep her teammate safe and anonymous if she could help it - better to not turn them both into prime targets. Her eyes locked on the sphere. "What the...?"

Babylon saw it, too, and he was much quicker to move than the senshi beside him. He twisted his arm so that instead of her holding his wrist, suddenly he was holding hers, and pulled. "Europa, come on!" he exclaimed, breaking into a run away from the little metal orb. He had no way of knowing what it might contain, but he assumed it was a grenade of some sort and they were hardly in the kind of environment where you'd want to get hit with one of those! (Not that you ever wanted to be hit with a grenade!)

Although they managed to avoid the percussive blast, the pair could not outrun the acrid smoke that roiled forth from Zinkenite's bomb. Babylon doubled over as soon as it hit his lungs, gasping like a grounded fish as his throat constricted. Of course gasping only made it worse, because that only forced more smoke into his lungs. He doubled over, wheezing, but found himself pulled forward by Europa. She was less affected, teary-eyed and coughing but still coherent.

"Move," she urged, pulling him forward. Whatever was in this smoke, it was downright noxious. She needed to pull them both clear of the smoke or else it would choke them.

Luckily, the area of effect seemed limited. The pair emerged from the dark cloud coughing - and retching, in Babylon's case, the squire was grateful he hadn't eaten before patrol - and unable to resume running for the moment. Europa struggled back to her full height, taking heaving lungfuls of clean air. The squire beside her clung to her side.

"Holy ********," he gasped. Europa glanced over her shoulder, but could not see the general king through the smoke.

"We need to keep going," she urged, picking up the squire's lantern and pulling him down the path. Europa thought she remembered how to get out of here, but she hadn't been counting on encountering Zinkenite when she walked into the power station.

Finding their path blocked by the general king, Europa swore under her breath. She'd known he had that trick, but still considered it cheating that while she and Babylon had exhausted themselves looking for the exit, he'd blipped there in an instant. "It infuriates you not knowing, doesn't it?" she asked, fascinated that she'd found something by which to piss off the general king, even as she warily watched the smoke bomb in his hand. She knew what it could do now.

She held out a hand to stop Babylon in his tracks. Better to keep their distance and stay ready to move than take another sucker hit.

Babylon, for his part, was not even sure what the big deal about his name was. If it had just been him alone facing the general king he might have given it willingly if it meant an easy escape. However, standing beside Europa he was more reluctant. The senshi was obviously at least passingly familiar with Zinkenite, and she had made herself clear: Babylon was not to reveal his name under any circumstances.

Well, then, those were his marching orders. He wanted to impress her, didn't he?

"Sorry to disappoint you, Zink," said the senshi, thrusting a hand towards the officer. "Europa deep ocean pressure!" Shooting a glare at the squire, she urged, "Go, now!" and darted forward towards the gate, hoping that her pressure attack would keep the general king down as well as it could paralyze an ordinary negaverser.

Babylon made to follow her but stumbled, still feeling the after-effects of the noxious gas. He picked up the pace once more, but had wasted valuable time in recovering his balance. Europa gave him a sharp look from the gate and barked, "Come on!"

The squire pushed forward, stumbling and coughing as he tried to pass the general king.

Babylon shot the general king a bewildered glance as he regained his footing, amazed to be alive. He'd made foolish mistake, taken a misstep, and by all means ought to have had his head neatly lopped from his body. Zinkenite's expression was inscrutable behind his mask, but it was evident enough to Babylon based on the negaverser's body language, and the fact that he wasn't simply throwing off the senshi's weakest attack that there would be no decapitations tonight.

Babylon got his feet under him and sprinted to the gate as fast as his legs would take him. "What the ******** did you do?" he demanded from the senshi. Europa couldn't see Zinkenite's face - all she knew was that someone of his power level shouldn't have been as severely affected by her base level attack as he had been. The general king was still reeling, and Europa was counting her blessings.

"Just come on!" she yelled, looping her arm around Babylon's and dragging him away. She was about ready to write tonight off as not being a complete bust - they weren't dead, but she wasn't about to say she'd won against the general king. The senshi of the deep shot Babylon a worried glance as they made their getaway, rushing to put as much ground as possible between themselves and Zinkenite. The attack would wear off soon enough, and she didn't want another face-full of smoke.

As the power station faded into the distance, she turned to the squire. "What do you mean, what did I do?" she asked. "It was a basic attack." Babylon blanched at the senshi.

"He should've shrugged it off," he panted. "You got him good."

"Lucky shot," shrugged Europa, wishing she could have seen.