Welcome to Gaia! ::

Puck staggered through the hallway of the ruined Farnsworth Building, still trying to recover from Faustite's attempt to take his starseed. The trauma of that attempt would doubtless be dealt with later, with a bottle of whiskey at the very least; he fully expected to have nightmares about the fallen General's burning, rage-filled eyes and leering snarl of a grin hovering over his near-unconscious form for weeks to come.

Reaching the stairwell, he slowly made his way down to the first floor and exit from the would-be death trap. At least he had helped to thwart the Negaverse's plan to murder senshi and knights -- his frantic message to Princess Ganymede had gotten through. He could still feel her auric presence on the scene, which filled his heart with hope that the Negaverse would be under full retreat at this point. Hopefully Order hadn't taken too many casualties. Hopefully the civilians hadn't, either.

The first floor was in much the same state of disarray and ruin as the upper floors were: sprinklers soaking everything, small spot fires here and there, but no grand conflagration charring senshi and knight alike. Fire alarms still screamed everywhere, though, which meant the fire department hadn't shown up yet. Good, he thought; this gave him and the other Order operatives time to escape.

He was eyeing the exit when he tripped over something. "s**t," he cursed half-heartedly, then looked down. It was a leg that seemed to be attached to a civilian -- a youth by the look of him. Looking around, Puck saw there was no one else around, so it was up to him.

Bending over, he leaned over the youth (who hopefully wasn't dead), his dreadlocks dripping water onto the prone form's face. "Hey mate? You okay? You alive?"

[quote="Strickenized]hope this works for you!

Puck hovered a bit as the teen collected himself and stood. At least he was alive -- whomever it was that did this to him didn't steal his starseed, thankfully. It seemed to him that all that had happened to the kid was he got drained of energy and passed out, falling onto the floor of the office building.

"I'll explain what I can, mate. Just thank your lucky stars you survived this." The sound of fire engines and police sirens drifted in from outside, beneath the screaming fire alarms in the building; that sound meant the place was soon to be overrun by authorities looking to make arrests. He didn't want to be around here for that.

Putting a hand on the teen's shoulder, he gently urged him toward the nearest exit. "Come on, we gotta get out of here before the cops turn up," the Super Senshi said, glancing over his shoulder. "Main entrance is probably the best way out. We gotta move though. You steady enough to walk okay? Maybe even run?"

"Puck," said Puck by way of introduction. Looking Laike over, he noticed the burn on the teen's neck. So Faustite had gotten him too, or the General's squid youma. Kid was lucky he survived the encounter.

Shaking his head, the Senshi quickly moved to get Laike out of there before things got more complicated. "Nope, can't say I've ever done this before -- thought it was just me I was clearing out of here. Lucky I came across you." Puck had never had to save a civilian before now, but as the thought bounced around in his mind, he realized that was what he was doing all this magical Senshi crap for: the people of Destiny City. "What is the city but the people?" he murmured the Shakespeare quote under his breath.

He saw the exit ahead and, with one hand on Laike's shoulder and the other on his arm, led him toward it, picking through the debris on the floor and avoiding the spot fires. "I do, mostly, but you wouldn't believe me if I told you…"

"You probably did," Puck said, quickly steering Laike past the grisly scene at the secretary's desk, cringing a bit himself. "There was a lot of things out there today that shouldn't be real, but are. Crazy looking people in crazy outfits fighting each other, monsters running around, or floating, or whatever."

Reaching the exit, he peered around. There were still some Negaverse agents who hadn't left yet, still plenty of Order people. Puck sighed; then the howl of the approaching fire trucks pierced the air. "Come on, let's go. Quickly."

He fell into a trot, hoping Laike would be able to keep up with him. "You were most likely drained of energy -- life-force kind of energy," he told Laike as they headed across the plaza. "It's why you're tired and kind of bleary round the edges. And why I'm being kind of careful with you and not asking you to run too hard. You're probably exhausted."

Puck was pretty exhausted too, but he pushed on. Had to get Laike to safety.

"Succubus… yeah, kinda like that," Puck said, slowing down so Laike could catch up. He put an arm around the teen and draped Laike's arm over his shoulder to help carry him, because the kid was clearly in no condition to run. Neither was he, but that was beside the point. "And you're not going to turn super old. You'll recover in a few days, don't worry…"

Puck trailed off as he saw the full scale of the attack's aftermath. "s**t. What a ******** mess…" The devastation hit him hard. So senseless…

Laike asked another question, and Puck collected himself enough to continue moving out of the ground zero area. "Some of them, yeah. Some of them, well… they won't be waking up, at least not anytime soon. Part of their souls were taken. See, there were two sides to this -- the side I'm on, the good guys, the ones trying to save people, and a group called the Negaverse, the bad guys, the ones stealing energy and souls from people. The Negaverse were responsible for all this."

Puck tried to ignore the bodies scattered about as he helped Laike get to safety. He led the kid down an alley, where he paused at a spot that didn't have so much death in it. "Yeah, the Negaverse are feeding energy and starseeds to their Dear Leader or some shite like that. I don't know if that's where their power comes from or if they're all part youma -- that's the name for the monsters. It's Japanese for 'monster', I think."

He was feeling kind of tired himself, after the fight with Faustite, before the General collapsed on him. Funnily enough, it was rather exhausting to nearly have your starseed ripped from your body and eaten while being choked with a burning hand. Leaning against a wall, he gave Laike a good visual once-over to make sure he seemed okay. Teens were remarkably resilient and impressionable all at the same time; Laike looked fine, except for the burn scarring around his throat, but mentally was a whole different story.

"It happens every ********' night," Puck answered honestly. "They come out and steal energy and starseeds from the good people of Destiny City, we come out to try and stop them. They send monsters out, we dust 'em. Best way to protect yourself is to not go out at night if you can help it." Seeing the growing concern on Laike's face, he tried to reassure him. "At least they don't do big operations like this all the time… This was an isolated incident, really."

"Yeah, the monsters sometimes belong to the Negaverse people. Kind of like… I dunno, pets? Companions? Slaves? I really don't know." He thought about Faustite again, how he had just crumpled all of a sudden and his youma, that squid thing, didn't show up. Did it get dusted, and was that what caused Faustite to become incapacitated?

Puck watched Laike wilt against the wall. I feel you, kid, he thought. It was a lot to dump on him, but he'd been in the thick of it and had asked -- he had every right to know what was going on, even if it did seem a bit far-fetched and insane. That plus the draining and poor Laike was probably mentally exhausted as well as physically.

Nodding, Puck sighed. "It's okay to not know what to think. It's a ton of weird s**t all at once." He managed a weak smile for Laike. "No problem, happy to answer questions, even if the answers were a bit… yeah."

At the plant offer, though, Puck tilted his head with interest. He knew plants -- he had his own little English garden that he tended with the help of his mum in the backyard of his house. He loved plants. "Uh, yeah, sure! What kind of plants do you raise?"

"Sleep is good. Rest and recover." Which was exactly what Puck was going to do when he got home. Rest, recover… and drink. A lot.

He listened to Laike describe the plants he grew and what he had in abundance. "Night gladioli, yeah? I think I'd like one or two of those, actually. Don't have many night-bloomers in me garden." He then chuckled. "Yes, I have a home and a civilian 'secret identity' thing, don't look so surprised," he grinned with finger quotes at the appropriate spot. "Got me a lovely little English garden that I planted myself when I came here from the UK. Bit of home in the backyard." Which reminded him that he needed to water his plants, if his mum hadn't already.

Watching Laike root around for his keys and registering surprise when he found them in his pants pocket made Puck wonder what else had been done to the teen. Did the youma or whatever go through his pockets for loose change? Did they rob him or do other things to him while he was unconscious? That would have just been weird, even for an already weird situation.

"Motorcycle's fine," he shrugged. "If it gets you where you're going, I'm fine with it. I can hold onto the seat if you'd rather…"