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I was having such a hard time with this post, sorry!
To say that the scenario behaved as a runaway train was an understatement. An issue he discovered with his previous schemes presented itself once more - the realization that he was understaffed for the endeavor. First, he tried to organize a curious little stunt with only one lieutenant to assist him, and that ended in somewhat of a failure. Even when adding two others of similar rank, he met with drawbacks once more, though... Those were more than he could anticipate. And tonight - even with two again, he faced odds well-stacked against him.
A dozen civilians.
Three senshi.
One cat.
For a total of sixteen individuals rallying against him, four bearing the capability of stopping him. But... An impromptu alliance stood as a stack of cards - surely he might cause dissent among the ranks as a means to collapse the greater army?
Subterfuge was such an exciting method of attack.
One of the eternals descended upon the platform - no doubt to rescue her companion Kallichore. However, when the girl turned to him and uttered a strange, out-of-place phrase, his machinations took a turn for the worse.
It started simply, almost imperceptibly. Easily ignored. Bischofite coiled the live wire around his forearm further, in case the senshi aimed to steal it from his grasp or something equally reckless. However, as he tried to stand his ground, the sensation grew more powerful. Soon, he realized, the senshi's magic aimed to cauterize his viscera, and he could do nothing but attempt to tolerate it in the process. He gritted his teeth and winced, thoroughly plagued by the roiling fire searing him from the inside out, and he unwound the wire from his arm as quickly as he could. He needed to hand it off to someone, lest he succumb to these strange enchantments.
"Take it!" He hissed to Turpentine, whom regarded him with mild disgust. His disdain for this endeavor didn't matter right now - if he had half a brain, he'd realize that wire was the only object preventing the senshi from outright attacking them.
When Turpentine begrudgingly received the live wire, the act restored an inkling of Bischofite's faith.
Gasoline wasn't having much luck on her end, either. Though she intended to grasp the girl's starseed, as eerie a measure as that was, she heard the mewling of the cat she'd encountered earlier. She shot a sideways glance toward the building, and surely enough, a cat stood amidst a few inches of water. How in the hell did a cat get up here? More importantly, what was it doing just standing in water? She would've outwardly questioned it, but her current duties took precedence.
Besides, that was just... weird.
When she returned her attention to the grey-haired senshi, the girl stole her from her footing and the wide-eyed lieutenant let out a throttled shriek. Was this it? Was this senshi going to be the death of her? Were the two bound to fall from the dizzying heights of the building and adorn the ground in their final thoughts and feelings? As surely as she decided her own fate, she clung to the grey-haired girl and desperately tried to resign herself to this impromptu fate.
When they made landing on an adjacent precipice, such fears were dispelled almost instantaneously, as vapors in the wind. Now she turned her incredulous rage to the girl, who sought to sway her from the side of her captain. "My duties supersede the lives of these people, senshi! Don't you know anything about war? Sometimes deaths are necessary, and if this is how he wants to maintain an edge, then I would be a terrible soldier for disobeying him! I cannot go against my orders, even for people who may or may not have families!" Though inwardly she wondered if her captain's plan included frying the lot. But why would it? How would that benefit the Negaverse, if they couldn't even drain any energy from the panicked group?
"I'm not torturing these people. But I understand the needs of war. It's cruel, and it's ugly, and it's even endless sometimes, but sometimes it's a necessary thing." In her last moments of speech, Gasoline's eyes softened to a look akin to compassion.
On the nest of cables, Turpentine panicked when he finally spotted a sunflower-sporting senshi urging a civilian to run. Did she rescue the woman from their contrived cage? She must've - and how could she have done it right under their noses like that? "Bischofite, they're stealing people from right under us." He related this information in an abnormally cool tone, even for him.
"No s**t!" Came Bischofite's pained response, while he doubled over beneath his own hissing agony. Soon he expected to cough up ash; he needed some water, anything to quell the cauterization. He would die from this, he acknowledged, but the only water in sight was reserved for an electrocution chamber. But did it really matter? He desperately sought some means to stifle the flames.
"What should we do? Just let them be?" Turpentine studied the live wire, and his senses slowly returned to him. Was he seriously considering barbecuing a dozen people right now, including a cat? Maybe he spent too much time around Bischofite already.
He needed water. "I don't care!"
With Bischofite preoccupied with the senshi's enchantment, Turpentine decided to take the reins. "Senshi! Get the hell off this building and out of the pens or I'll throw this damned thing into the water!" He held up the wire as he spoke his bluff. Hopefully this might reduce the chaos to a stalemate, until he could secure a safe escape for gasoline and himself.
SIlent Spy
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Quicksilver the Archangel
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Lucifer Force
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Sunshine Alouette
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