Welcome to Gaia! ::

Captain Richterite had spent three years flying just under the radar. He had collected his energy, filed his reports and kept his nose clean. He had done everything within his ability to mind his own and stay out of fights if at all possible, putting the majority of his focus on gathering information.

He had not been the best that he could be. He had not lived up to the full potential that General King Zinkenite had awoken in him when he'd brought him up to the next level. He hadn't done anything.

Richterite was going to change that tonight. He was still seething from the state he had found Lieutenant Prehnite in. How had that place gone overlooked? For a whole week?

Would anyone have come looking for him had he gone missing? Zinkenite, Scheelite, Fayalite, Painite...

Livid, Richterite had gone out that night in search of a fight and what better way to draw one to him than to settle down in a place and do what he did best, drain energy. He avoided the theater district this time, not wanting to draw anyone who might know to seek him out there, instead heading for a seedier part of town where he could just let the bodies pile up as they came to him. Muggers, drunks, vagrants. Senshi. Knights. Let them come. He would take them all.

He picked up the trace of the order-aligned aura, pausing only briefly to see if he could pick out what direction it was coming from before moving on. His focus was too scattered to pick a direction and the aura wasn't closing in on him. Watching, then? Maybe. He would have to give whoever it was a good show.

Richterite rounded a corner, running into a man who had just come stumbling out of a nearby bar. It was a seedy establishment; a place where fights broke out often and it wasn't uncommon to find someone lying in the alley out back to 'sober up'. The man was a bit taller than him, but lean and clumsy from the alcohol that he reeked of. He was an easy target and the captain took advantage of that.

"Too bad I bet your starseed isn't worth anything," he murmured, voice low as he pressed an energy orb to the man's chest, putting focus into draining him quickly, not giving him a chance to fight back. His starseed might be worthless, but energy counted just the same and what better way to draw out whoever was watching than by attacking the 'helpless'.

"N-no. Stop it." He mocked the senshi's protest, adding in an extra whiny note at the end for good measure as he banished the orb to Negaspace, letting the civilian crumple to the ground at his feet. Still alive, still breathing. He hadn't killed him, but that didn't mean that someone else might not come by and finish the job.

He remained still, eyes fixed on the nameless senshi as he waited for the attack to come, glaring at her as the stones formed their circle. He was familiar with the way the stones were working, his own energy collecting orb similar in its nature. The difference seemed to be that her stones disappeared whereas the energy he claimed stuck around to be tapped into and used.

Captain Richterite swayed on his feet slightly, puffing out a breath as he glanced down before grinning as his eyes lifted to her once more. "Is that all you've got?" Buying time as he took another breath, Richterite called the orb that he had banished back, drawing on some of the energy from it to replenish his own. "Want to give it another go? What's your name? I like knowing the names of senshi before I take them out."

"Captain Richterite, and unless I'm mistaken, your name isn't anywhere on these streets, Scout. If you want me off of your turf you're going to have to do your best to make me leave." Childish as his words might have been, they were delivered with a dark grin as he drew his weapon, a set of four metal throwing cards that caught a gleam in the street light.

"Want to try that attack again, kitten? Or is it my turn?" Not waiting for a response he shifted one of the cards to his throwing hand, launching it in her direction.

"Like your name's any better."

Not in the mood to waste time with drawing more energy from his storage orb, Richterite hopped out of the range of her attack this time. The stones just missed him, clattering to the ground as he fired another card off in her direction.

Neither of the first two throws were intended to be lethal; the first card aimed high, the second now low. If anyone were to make a guess they might think that he was toying with her, as he often did when it came to 'battles' that he often tried to skip out on. Not this time, though. This time he was just warming up, attempting to gauge her skill level while waiting to see if she would make a mistake out of anger.

"Uh-oh. Are we all out of magic?" He deflected her fist, letting it hit his hand only enough to grab her by the wrist and twist her arm behind her back. He yanked her back, stepping up behind her while firming his grip to keep her still.

"Bet you weren't expecting that. Bet you weren't expecting this either," he murmured, voice low and dark as he stepped back so that he had enough room to press his other hand onto her back and then through her back. His fingers had slid into the subspace pocket that housed her starseed, wrapping around it and drawing it against his palm until he could feel the edges biting into skin.

"One move and it's mine. One move and you won't be the senshi of anything anymore. You won't even exist."

When she slumped he shifted to catch her, releasing his hold on her wrist so that he could hold her up when he could have just let her fall. If she dropped to the ground than his other hand would slide free from within the dimensional space, drawing her starseed out with it. It would be so easy. It --

His fingers flexed around the starseed, cradling it far more gently than his own had been handled by either of the General Kings; the first at his induction, the second at his promotion. He pondered briefly what would happen if he tried to push some of his energy into it. Would the senshi corrupt? Or would she just shatter?

Chaos is a parasite...

The voice that he heard in his head was not his own. There had been another senshi recently; another red-head, far more confident than the young woman whose life he now balanced between his fingers. She had said something that had stuck with him that night. When he had found Prehnite in the cell, bound in chains, he had pushed it away, forgetting any doubts he might have had.

Why was he hearing it again now? Why --

Chaos is a parasite...

"Shut up!" he growled, closing his eyes tightly, seconds away from yanking the starseed out and being done with it.

Chaos is a parasite and the time will come where you lose sense of yourself and I pray to Cosmos that when you see it, it won't be too late.

He released Zhou Yi's starseed, giving the Senshi of Sesshoseki a rough shove away from him as he drew his hand back. "Go. Leave. I don't ever want to see you on my turf again."

"What kind of foolish senshi sticks around to insult the person who's just given them the precious gift of their life? I told you to go." He didn't know what he would do if she didn't leave. He wanted to apologize. He wanted -- There were so many voices in his head, all disappointed, all chastising him.

... I pray to Cosmos that when you see it, it won't be too late.

"GO!" He snapped, faking a lunge forward at her in an attempt to startle her off and possibly hide the fact that he was shaking. He wasn't sure that he could keep the trembling at bay long enough to focus on teleporting himself away and he wasn't going to run; didn't trust his legs to carry him.

What had he almost done?