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The park wasn't the first place the young Lieutenant would have picked for a meet-up place, but then again, Epidote never really did the decision making in the family. Penny - or Stella, rather - had told him where and when to show up, making him pinky promise not to do any lasting damage on her young friend during the meet-up. There were bigger plans in store for Kari, according to the older Rey, so his hands were to be kept off for anything but energy draining.

Sigh.

Boots crunched under the pebbles leading up to the playground area of the park. He saw the silhouette of the swinging senshi from a distance, but the knowledge that she was already there, waiting for him, didn't quicken his speed. Eyes scanned the park around them - could she have brought friends?

Stella was the smarter of the two, there was no doubt, but even she could be susceptible to dirty tricks. If something is too good to be true, it probably is.

He paused in his gait, then slowly resumed as he stepped over the wooden divider splitting the playground from the park. Hands stuffed in his pockets, he called out to the brunette.

"Y'know, I wondered if you'd even bother showing up."

He swallowed the that's what she said that had been practically trying to jump off of his tongue, knowing full well that if he tried his usual high school teenager commentary that he might come home short on his energy quota. While he wasn't terribly bummed about it himself, he knew upsetting his sister would only be the start of his problems. Better bite his tongue now and save himself an earful in the morning.

"Yeah, I remember." He licked his lips, suddenly finding himself unusually dry in the mouth. He wasn't nervous. Why would he be nervous? So Stella wasn't here to hold his hand through the process, big deal. He could do this. He could do this.

Stepping up to her, one hand moved down to encircle her waist, keeping hold on her in lieu of his sister's comforting embrace. Stella wasn't here to hold up the frail little senshi, so he figured holding her up himself would keep her from developing any unusual bruises she'd have to explain to his sister later. The other hand move to grasp her hand - that could work as skin touch too, right?

Fingers laced themselves between hers and he took a deep breath.

"You ready? This...doesn't hurt you, does it?"

The question surprised even himself as it escaped his lips. Curiosity was a powerful thing - green eyes stared down at his prey as he suddenly blinked. "No, you wouldn't be doing this if it hurt you... right?"

"If you say so..."

Concentrating on her fingers, a small golden ball appeared in between their palms as he absorbed it from within the senshi. He paused shortly after it developed, the orb halting to the size of a quarter. "Wait."

Pulling away, he lifted the quarter sized energy ball, pinching it between his thumb and forefinger as his eyes narrowed. If energy draining didn't hurt, did that mean...

"What about your starseed? Wouldn't it be faster if I pulled energy out from there as opposed to touching you?"

Epidote was all for speeding up processes - he had a raid to get to in an hour, as it was. Maybe Stella had simply never tried that route - wouldn't she be impressed that he was coming up with ideas of his own!

He struggled to squash the excitement growing within him - Stella had given him a basic run-down on starseeds, but Epidote was more of a hands-on kind of learner. Ever since he was little, figuring out how things worked was key to all of his investigating - and this senshi was not excluded from his curiosity.

"Alright, stay still."

His gaze moved down to her chest, but for the first time, it wasn't to stare at her chest, but at the treasure that lurked within it. As his hand drifted through her fuku and into her core, he wondered for a brief moment if this action would hurt her. It was almost scary, the fact he realized that he didn't really care if it hurt or not... did that make him less human, to feel that way about an enemy? An enemy who had shown no ill will towards him, that had gone so far as to say she trusted him, of all things?

Fingers latched on to the starseed, feeling the massive amount of energy pulsing through it. Pausing, he glanced up at her expression, checking her.

"Do you...want to look at it?" His voice grew quiet. "I've never seen one, myself."

Her hesitance was missed entirely as he focused on the crystal still pinched between his fingers. He knew they were fragile - they required care like any other precious crystal - so his attention was glued on ensuring he gripped the seed out and pulled slowly. Curiosity was killing him over what these starseeds looked like, especially knowing how much they were worth to the Negaverse.

His hand wrapped around the pulsing treasure, which almost seemed to resist to his tugging. Still, with eyebrows furrowed, he managed to slip it out of her chest, a flood of relief washing over him as he opened his palm to see the sparkling, beautiful source of power.

"Have you ever seen anything like it?"

So this was the energy source that powered everyone in the world? Like a magical battery, producing endless amounts of energy in every single individual that walked the Earth.

Incredible.

If her starseed hadn't been in the palm of his hand, the sudden piercing scream that lit up the silence of the night might have caused it to fall onto the pebbles of the playground at their feet. Green eyes shot down to the senshi that had suddenly collapsed onto the ground, her body crumpling like a doll's as she hit the ground with a sudden thud.

"Oh my god."

His eyes were as wide as saucers, the realization hitting him hard - if you took the batteries out of a game, it turned the game off. What had he been thinking, that she'd be alright without her battery supplying energy directly into her core??

Grasping the starseed with both hands, he fell to his knees, bumping against the slumped body of the super senshi. One hand moved out to shove the girl's body onto her back while the other held tightly to the seed. Her skin had already begun to grow ashy, lips turning blue as if she'd been deprived of oxygen.

Without a second thought, the hand holding the starseed thrust forward, jamming the crystal back into the senshi's chest with such force that it shook her entire form. "Please, please be okay. You're okay - Kari, you're okay, right?"

Releasing the crystal inside of her, his hand removed itself from her chest and moved upwards, both gloves taking hold of her shoulders as he shook her forcibly. "KARI. KARI."

Oh god, Stella was going to kill him when she found out he'd murdered her little plaything.

Once again caught off guard by her sudden outburst, the young Lieutenant found himself toppling backwards as she lurched forward and struggled to get up to her feet. Flat on his butt, his own gloves moved to find something to pull himself up with, but it was too late.

Wide eyes stared up in fear and confusion as she yelled something unintelligible, words that didn't even make any sense but somehow caused some crazy sort of shooting pain to course through him. Was this the senshi magic that his sister had warned him about? Had Kari decided to attack him?

Choosing to grab hold of himself instead of searching for footing to stand on, the Lieutenant curled up into a ball and let out a pained moan. His eyes had instinctively shut as he fought against the pain wracking his body, but as he heard the echoing thumps of footsteps, one green eye peeked open to watch the senshi making a quick getaway. She hadn't even given him the opportunity to apologize - oh god, how this hurt - this was just a misunderstanding! He hadn't meant to almost kill her, he swore!

Wincing, he returned to nursing the sharp pain flowing through his lanky form as bitter thoughts suddenly flooded his mind - how was Stella going to react to this new turn of events?!

He really, really didn't want to find out.