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Lt. Solo #1 & #2: 1063 words

------The crowd was screaming as the boys ran by, each fighting for the ball, trying to either send it to other teammates or score a goal themselves.

------It was fun to watch, at least to Tom. He was in the stands with one of his own teammates, watching the soccer match that his friend had invited him to. It was the first time this teammate’s little brother would be playing and he had wanted to bring some support to cheer his little sibling on. Tom could understand, being a big brother himself how important it was to support one’s own little sibling, even if they were on the other side of the country currently.

------It was just a fun little game, with high school students playing against each other. Nothing major or noteworthy or anything that would make the front page of the newspapers for this game, no possible college recruiters here either and it didn’t count for the season. Certainly nothing to get extremely upset over or to yell at your kid for for messing up.

------Too bad that wasn’t what one father, or at least whom Tom believed to be the kid’s father, thought as he continued to hurl insults at his own son for messing up or not doing what his father thought he should be doing. And of course, this was making the kid mess up even more, now nervous because of his father and losing his self-confidence also. When would parents learn that this wasn’t the way to encourage their kids? Tom sighed, trying to concentrate on the game, finding that to be hard since the father was still yelling, and had been doing so since the beginning of the game. BEFORE his son had come out onto the field even, yelling at the coach and hurling insults at him too to have his son put in the game. It was only the first half!

------A half hour later, the game finally had it’s half-time break where people could go to the concessions stand or get up and walk around, etc. Tom used this to his advantage to stretch a bit while his teammate went to see if he could talk to his brother. It was then Tom noticed the over-obsessive dad grabbing his son from the field, was he allowed to do that?, and moving them both towards a more secluded area. Tom had to follow, this wouldn’t be good. Even if the dad was just yelling at the kid, that still wasn’t right in his eyes and he felt as though he had to do something at least. This was one time where he was actually happy about the powers that had been given to him.

------He followed them at a distance, until the father stopped and let go of his son and started to lay into him. The kid was clearly feeling awful, probably thinking he wasn’t a good player or an asset to the team, Tom thought the kid was fine, and the father was making it worse. Cursing at the kid, insulting him, and looking like he was about to hit him. Tom had to intervene. Hitting wouldn’t help and it certainly would make the kid harder to play. Tom ran up to the too, grabbing the fathers arm before his hand made contact with the boy’s face. Startled, the dad managed to pause, finding himself unable to move for a while. Tom looked at the boy, who looked just as surprised. “Go back to the game, I’ll take care of this.” He said, still keeping a hold on the father. The kid looked unsure still, until Tom nodded to him and he ran off to rejoin his teammates. Hopefully the kid wasn’t scared that he would get a beating later instead of now. Just then the father managed to yank his arm from Tom’s grip. “What the ******** do you think you’re doing?! That little ******** needed to get his **** straightened out! Messing up out there, he was a loser!” The man yelled taking a swing at Tom. Tom managed to dodge the flying fist and sighed. Well, he would just have to change now, and with a father like this, no one would believe the man if the man even remembered or believed it himself. Concentrating, Tom managed to change into his negaverse uniform, that of Lt. Arsenopyrite. Man that was a long name. He should try to shorten it somehow. Get a nickname or something.

------The man stood there, mouth agape, fist still in the air. Tom wasn’t afraid of anyone else seeing them. The father had found a place where he could privately yell at his son, though no one would have been surprised if the father had done it in front of everyone else like he had been the entire game so far. Tom took advantage of the man’s stupor and grabbed the father’s outstretched arm and put his other hand near the man’s chest. “How about you sleep for a while, think about how you’ve been treating your son.” Tom murmured as he started to drain energy from him. The man tried yelling, but was quickly too tired to do so and once enough of his energy had been drained, completely slumped forward, knees bending, arm still in the air because of Tom’s grip, and had fallen asleep.

------Tom mentally sighed, storing the energy in one of his uniform pockets and changing out of his negaverse form. He laid the guy down face up onto the grass. The man was already in the shade so no worry about getting sunburn, though Tom was still going to alert officials. He headed back to the game, which seemed to be starting again. Once he got back to the stands he found the atmosphere to already be more pleasant without that man yelling the whole time. The father’s kid looked a little more relaxed to. Tom quickly alerted one official about the man’s whereabouts and his “drunken” state. He then moved back to the stands and sat down next to his teammate again. The teammate looked at him and smiled, though with one eyebrow lifting in question. “Where have you been this whole time? And you know what happened to that guy? Everyone was wondering if he would be escorted out by security or something!” His friend told him, questions lingering about. Tom chuckled a bit. “Well, turns out the guy was pretty drunk and managed to pass out somewhere over there.” He replied, waving his hand in the general direction the man’s sleeping body was located in. His friend nodded. “Makes sense, I mean you would HAVE to be drunk to be making such an **** of yourself in front of everyone.” Tom nodded his head in reply and looked back at the game that had been resumed. He may not agree with everything that the negaverse did or believed in, but if he could help someone out like how he had just done, he could get used to it.

Lt. Solo #5: 530 words

------Tom huffed as he managed to run into an alleyway away and out of sight from the senshi that had been following him. He breathed heavily, clutching his knees and managed to power down to his street clothes. At that point he sat down and sat down in the gross alleyway, trying to catch his breath. He could clean the clothes later.

------He had been in the middle of draining another person of their energy, this time an assault suspect who had stabbed someone before taking their possessions and he had powered to meet him. In the middle of the draining a senshi had found him. It was of course, not the first time this had happened, but he was getting sick and tired of it. And of course the senshi hadn’t listened to his explanation. They never did, even if they seemed scared to fight they always fought him.

------He wondered what they were trying to protect and why they seemed so adamant about protecting whatever to the point that they would defend those who didn’t deserve it. He had tried to be a good person even if he was part of the negaverse. He didn’t go after anyone who hadn’t committed a crime and if he had to then he did something for them in return, such as giving a few dollars to any homeless person who had been an easy target. He knew that the negaverse wasn’t exactly the best faction of this war to be on, but he started to wonder if the senshis and knights whom he fought against might not be the best side either.

------He hadn’t had many interactions with either of the two factions, but he had been in favor of the senshis before, at least to the point where he wouldn’t call them terrorists. But that had been changing now. Sure, he still didn’t consider them to be terrorists, but he wondered if what they were doing was any better. Both sides tortured the others, both sides seemed to think they were right, and he had no idea what either sides true goals were. But… but the senshis and the knights seemed to also continue to keep the status quo. The negaverse were actually doing something for this war, but what was the other side doing? So far all they seemed to be doing was protecting the people and while Tom didn’t agree with turning people into youma or killing them, not ALL of them deserved protection. What was wrong with giving instant punishment to those who hurt others?

------His breathing was becoming more even now, and the senshi hadn’t found him, so hopefully that meant that the senshi couldn’t find him. He would wait a bit more before trying to go back to his apartment. He couldn’t wait to become a captain so at least he could teleport there and hopefully no one else would be able to follow if he changed quickly enough.

------He sighed, standing up and feeling the bruises that were now forming thanks to the senshi. He frowned a bit, wondering to himself if he shouldn’t try to get out of all of this mess completely.

Lt. Solo #7: 519 words

Tom sighed as he buried his face into the pillow, trying to drown out his best friend. His best friend who still lived in California and whom Tom dearly missed, but what his friend was telling him was better left unsaid.

Jason was… a ladies man, to put it lightly. Honestly he would bang any chick that was skinny and somewhat good looking. And that’s what he had been telling Tom about this whole time during the phone call. And the pornographic scenes that were being said were… grossing Tom out to say the least. And people think “Fifty Shades of Gray” is bad… He thought to himself as his friend droned on.

He usually talked to Jason about once a week over the phone. Usually though more communication was done through text messaging or online games. Tom usually called his other friends too, but he liked to talk to his best friend, the one he had known since he was little. Unfortunately though Jason liked to talk about sex, a lot.

Tom looked at the phone again, waiting for Jason to finally stop talking for a bit. “And she was such a good lay too… but man what are you up to?” Oh thank goodness he finally stopped talking. Tom thought as he breathed a sigh of relief. Now he could finally talk to his friend about stuff. Not about Negaverse stuff, but stuff.

He felt bad for keeping secrets from Jason. They had been pretty open to each other before and now Tom felt like there was a wall between them, through neither fault of their own. Jason was still as open though, perhaps a little too open but he would still be there for Tom through thick and thin.

Maybe one day Tom would be able to tell his friends and family about what he had been doing lately. He wanted to break down the wall that had been put up by the negaverse and he was tired of having to keep it there. Didn’t the negaverse already take over 99% of the world? What was there to hide anymore? Why didn’t they just come out and reveal themselves already? Tom was frustrated about all of the secrecy that now surrounded his life.

But all he could do was try to act as if everything was normal and he was just an average DCU student who didn’t drain energy out of people. He should take these calls as an opportunity to pretend he was normal. He so badly wanted to tell his parents and brother about all of the negaverse stuff. His cats too. Really he just wanted to go home for a bit and see all of them again.

So, as he was conversing with Jason over the phone, he started to look up plane ticket prices and dates for San Francisco. Of course he would tell his family that he was coming home first, but he just needed a break from ALL of this! Hopefully those in the negaverse wouldn’t find out about it because he certainly wouldn’t be draining people on this trip.

Limbo Solo: 1,294 words

------“WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE’S COMING HERE?!?” Tom shouted into the phone. He had been talking to his parents when the incredible news was told to him. He knew his parents had said there was some good news but this?! This was HORRIBLE news!

------He couldn’t see, but James flinched a bit while backing a way a bit from the cell phone he held in his hand and looked over at his wife who had a concerned look on her face. His parents hadn’t expected this reaction at all. Luckily Jason wasn’t here so that he had to hear his brother’s horrified reaction.

------James sighed, face as blank neutral as ever. Sarah recovered quickly enough, but her face was marred with a frown now. She wasn’t sure what had caused her eldest’s son terrible reaction. They both thought that he would be excited that his little brother would be staying in the same city that he was going to university in. But instead he had yelled into the phone like he didn’t want him there!

------“We thought you would be excited about this Tom. What’s with the yelling?” His father asked in a calm tone. An outburst like that wouldn’t rattle him, he was sure that his son had a reason, even if it was a bad one, that he had reacted in such a way. Tom had never acted like that before when it came to his brother unless his brother was in some sort of trouble and he had to go rescue him.

------Of course, Tom couldn’t tell the real reason as to why he didn’t want his brother to come to Destiny City. He couldn’t exactly go, “Well I’m part of this organization that takes energy and sometimes souls from people that we then give to our queen in order to be able to defend the planet and I really would rather keep him ignorant and safe back in San Francisco.” Not only would they not believe it, they would want him to get checked by a psychiatrist.

------Tom sighed as he tried to control his breathing. Now he would have to protect his little brother without revealing anything to him at the same time. And he would have to be on the lookout for any youma that would possibly want to attack his little brother. And considering how he was ‘recruited’ into the Negaverse and the fact that he had been attacked by fellow agents a few times already… he knew his brother was in even greater danger.

------His parents would most likely send his brother no matter what he said, but he tried to tell them in the most non-specific way possible. “Look… it’s just that there is a lot more crime going on in this city than the news covers.” Especially considering how much they covered up all the attacks and murders. He only knew of most of it because of amateur video on the internet.

------“There’s actually a serial killer here right now,” quite a few actually, but if he told his parents that then they would demand he come home as well and he couldn’t leave… yet. “And there’s a lot of mugging too.” He wouldn’t tell them he had been attacked also. His mother wasn’t a worrywart but if she knew both of her sons could be in danger she would personally go over there and drag him back to SF. “I mean I haven’t had anything happen to me yet.” He hated lying to his parents. “But it’s just that I won’t be able to protect him all of the time, or at least as much as I did in San Francisco. I mean I’m going to be busy with school and stuff.” Stuff being draining energy of course and other Negaverse things.

------James would have huffed if he showed emotion like that, but just calmly said to his son, “Tom he’s going to be going to boarding school and while I’m sure you’ll call and visit as much as you can, from what we’ve read of the school and from what we’ve heard Jason want from school, he’s going to be pretty busy. He already wants to focus on astrology and phsyics even though he plans to major in business in college.” He hoped that his youngest son would take over the insurance company some day, but he wouldn’t hold it against the boy for not doing so. But Jason had to tell him by the time the boy turned 30 because if they waited too long they wouldn’t have a plan set up for when he retired from the company.

------“And he’ll probably want to hang out with friends and such he makes over there, though if he’s bullied we’ll pull him out if he wants. And if you really feel protective over him then you can always stay with him when he sneaks out at night to go look at stars again.” Hopefully the school allowed some leeway for his son to go and explore at night. Or perhaps he could get permission to be allowed onto the roof somehow.

------Tom put his hand to his face and tried to rub some of the tension away. He couldn’t press the issue too hard with his parents. If he did he would end up revealing the truth. He cared much more about his family than he did about keeping all of this Negaverse and White Moon and whatever business a secret. But he knew Jason wasn’t a troublemaker. If the boarding school had strict rules on when they could go out then his little brother would follow them unless he could get permission otherwise.

------And he knew that Jason would always welcome his company if he called and asked if they wanted to hang out. Though he would respect his brother’s privacy if he requested it. But he had done the best he could. He had warned his parents and he was sure that they would tell his brother the warnings with plenty of time so that he could back out if he wanted. He had done the best he could.

------“All right. I am excited about him coming here; I’m just really worried about him too. I’ll make sure to keep an eye out on him though but I’m sure he won’t be out there looking for danger or anything.” And he would definitely tell him which places to avoid, such as that antique shop with his fellow serial killer Negaverse Lieutenant. That place STILL creeped him out.

------“Tom we know this is definitely a change and we’re sure Jason won’t pressure you to do anything with him if you don’t want to. He’ll respect your privacy too. I’m sure you two will get along fine.” Sarah said, since the phone was on speaker, trying to make her son feel better. She had never heard him with such a worried voice. “He won’t bother you if you tell him you’re on a date or anything.” She said with a bit of a giggle. She hadn’t heard of her eldest having a girlfriend yet, but she figured it would happen at some point.

------Tom blushed a bit, glad that his parents couldn’t see it. “Well, I’ve told you what I wanted to say. Tell him I’m looking forward to him coming though and I’ll be happy to show him around. I love you guys.” His parents replied with a ‘We love you too son’ and so the phone conversation had ended.

------Tom heaved out a heavy sigh as he fell back against his bed that he had been sitting on. This was NOT good. Hopefully though if he told his general about his brother then he wouldn’t become a target for the negaverse.

Cpt. Solos #4-7: 2,088

Lately Arseno had been going back and forth more to the Negaverse when he had free time. He had been getting more assignments and just getting to know the place better. He had mostly meandered through the Cathedral quite a bit since it seemed to be the main hub of the Negaverse organization, which he still wasn’t too knowledgable about. It bothered him greatly that he still felt as though he wasn’t being told everything. Didn’t they want him to be a better agent? Why were they holding back then? He had been trying to figure it out as he teleported in and out, practicing to get better and better. He now knew, with Bazzite’s talk, that he really shouldn’t be wandering about so much and that really he had just been lucky as to have not gotten caught by some sort of strange youma yet. He made sure to avoid the outer areas from now on, unless he was sure that he could find his way back.

Arseno still had an interest in getting to know the youma, but he wasn’t so interested that he was willing to risk his life just so he could look at some of them. He knew that there were other, more intelligent ones out there like they few that he had talked to. But the best bet would be to talk to someone else’s bonded youma if possible. He put that in his notes to ask about later.

By gathering knowledge about the Negaverse, he had hoped that he would find something that intrigued him or something that would actually make him feel like a part of the Negaverse, an actual AGENT! He knew that he was welcomed though, as the two generals he mostly went under were as helpful as they could be, but not as much as he needed. The hardest part was overcoming the fact that he really hadn’t been the best choice of an agent. He believe that he had too good of a heart to be a part of all of this. And all of the other agents that he had met with and talked to? They HAD a reason to stay and be loyal to the Negaverse, although he wasn’t sure what they were. And of course, the Negaverse appealed to some of the more… creepy personalities, personalities that he wasn’t quite sure that he could work with.

From what he had heard though from his generals though, there were plenty in the White Moon who were willing to try and kill or torture their own agents. So purifying wasn’t an option. He knew that if he truly wanted to get away, he would have done it by just getting out of the war completely. But how could he? There was nowhere to run when it came to the Negaverse. As he had been told, they already had most of the world, though it was kept tightly under wraps. The only way to truly get away was if he could wipe himself somehow from the database.

However, for right now, he would still continue as an agent. At least this way he would be able to protect his brother better, or at least he hoped so.

Visiting the Negaverse, he lately felt as though he was being watched. He wasn’t sure of it, and while he had always had the feeling of eyes upon him, those hadn’t made him feel like it was watched. It seemed more as if those were looking, but weren’t really seeing, and so he paid them no mind. After all, from just the entrance there were many… things in the Negaverse you really didn’t want to lock eyes with.

It didn’t go away though while he stayed within the Negaverse. He hoped that it would, as he wondered what would even be looking at him so much and why it would be. But going to the Negaverse more and more only seemed to make the feeling increase, in a way that Arseno had wanted to mention to his general’s but didn’t want to bother them with it in case he was just feeling things.

But one day Arseno had been tasked to go a ways from the castle, on a task to find some sort of item a general was looking for. He wasn’t sure he felt as though he could manage it, but an order was an order, and he eventually found himself a bit farther from the cathedral than he wanted to. An area where the youma would start to come out and attack any unsuspecting officer. But Arseno was ready, or at least as ready as he could be until he felt himself pushed down as something hit him from behind.

He quickly scrambled to his feet, looking around, until his attention was drawn by a sort of trumpeting noise, though not as loud. He looked in the direction that it came from, and could see a winged youma, that didn’t really have a face, sitting on a spike that was jutting out from the high rocks. It seemed to be staring at him, though it had no eyes, only a complicated design pattern that glowed red and continually faded and then glowed again.

Arseno wasn’t sure at first, but then he felt the same feeling that had been plaguing him for the past few weeks. That stare! It was from this youma! But why? Why was it interested in him? After all, what it should be doing was trying to attack him and take his starseed. It had pushed him from behind after all, and seemed to be quite strong.

But as he looked at the youma, and it cocked what would be it’s head to the side, it seemed as though it was trying to figure out why Arseno had caught it’s attention also. Arseno could only come up with the fact that he was a captain, and if this youma had any brains in it at all and was old enough, that youma would sometimes go and help captains and generals and would be rewarded with starseeds in return.

Arseno wasn’t quite sure what to do with this. As he really didn’t want to go ripping out starseeds just to feed some youma that had taken interest in him, if this was his only chance at getting a bonded youma, then why not go for it? As he tried to get closer to it, it honked at him, seemingly angrily, and flew off. Arseno was a bit annoyed considering IT was the one looking at him this whole time, but he decided not to let it bother him.

However, that was easier said than done, as the next time he went down into the Negaspace, he had the same feeling once more. At least this time he knew what he was looking for. He had to look for a bit to find it, but once he did he wasn’t surprised that it was able to stare at him this whole time. Apparently it decided that it liked to perch on one of the spires that the castle had, and it’s glowing face was readily staring at him, unblinking.

Arseno huffed a bit, wondering how he could get the youma to actually come near him again. He figured that he would just have to wander off again, considering that was the only time that it had even tried to get near him. This time however, he chose an area that was less likely to be visitied by other agents and, what he hoped, were fewer youma. And it seemed that the plan had worked. Once again, the youma had decided to swoop in, almost tackling Arseno, but instead of flying up to what it deemed as a safe place this time, it went to a branch that was slightly lower to the ground, but still unable to be reached by Arseno easily.

This went on for a few weeks, with the youma coming to Arseno a little bit more each time. He was almost scared to admit it, but he had been looking forward to coming to the Negaverse more and more just so that he could see what he could do with the youma. It was a lot like trying to get the trust of a stray, feral cat. Eventually what would, or should, happen was that the cat, or youma, in this case, would be willing to let Arseno touch it.

When he believed that it was time, Arseno came down another week, hoping to find the youma. It had surprised him the last few times it had been here, and he had seen it waiting in their “meeting” area, but he had been coming at around the same time every few days, and it seemed that the youma could at least sense a pattern. Or perhaps it had just been waiting there the entire time every day, which Arseno felt a little bad for, though he couldn’t tell it what exactly was going on.

But this day, this day was different. He came down, ready to meet with the youma, and smiled a bit as he saw it, this time on a spike very close, but still unreachable by him. No matter though, Arseno had a plan today, one he hoped would show the youma that he was willing to form at least some sort of bond with it.

It was hunched over, looking at him curiously. They really hadn’t done much while they were together, but Arseno had tried talking to it, though he doubted it understood anything he said. He had learned that feral youma such as this one were quite plain and could only understand simple orders. But that didn’t mean that it wouldn’t want to talk right? It was almost like talking to another animal or something. One just needed to have time and the patience to work with it.

He approached slowly, almost making it seem as though he really wasn’t going to do anything and almost walk past it. It shuffled it’s talons, seemingly waiting for him to do something. Arseno stopped in front of it though, and fished something out of his pocket in his uniform. It was a bright, glowing ball of energy, and Arseno was sure that if this youma had eyes, they would have widened considerably. Instead, the youma did it all it could to show it’s excitement by flapping it’s wings a bit and getting closer to Arseno, still cautious about taking the offered energy. It was quite a big orb, and Arseno had been saving over the week to get it large enough to entice the youma. It seemed that it had worked though as it continued to slowly make it’s way closer to Arseno and eventually, took the offered enegy and absorbed it into it’s “mouth”.

It leaned down, it’s head close to Arseno, still seemingly trying to understand why Arseno was doing this. Well, he would just have to give an answer now wouldn’t he? “I know you’ve been looking at me.” It seemed to huff a bit. “I know that bonding with feral youma isn’t as good as bonding with a humanoid youma, but since you were stalking me for quite a bit, it made me take an interest in you. And I believe that if you are willing, that we could be come quite the pair. I think you are the youma best suited for me and I would try to help you out as much as possible. Honestly, I probably won’t need you most of the time. I’m sure you would much rather spend most of your time down here. But if we do form a bond, then I’ll keep some energy to give to you that I go around collecting, and when I need you, which again, won’t be that often, then you could help me out a little bit. I will try not to call you if I believe you could be in danger, but I believe you could be of great help to me eventually.” He wasn’t sure if the youma was getting all of that, but he felt as though he had to say it anyway. “At least I hope you understand this. I would like to make a bond with you. Do you agree?” He really hoped that the youma understood that. After what seemed to be 5 minutes though was only about half a minute, the youma quietly nodded.

Gen. Solo #1: 1,075

Stacey bit her lip a bit as she stared at her glass of water, periodically letting her eyes move back to the man in front of her. Tom had agreed to go on the date with her, though it had been a bit hard because of his school schedule. Apparently when one was an undergrad in medicine they still had a very busy schedule and lots of studying to do, and he hadn’t wanted to interrupt their classes to go on the date either… something she admired but was at the same time frustrated at. But he had seemed to consider the lessons very important, so she had easily given in.

But she was bothered a bit more by something else. He just seemed way to casual during this date! She knew that she was the one to initiate it, but he acted as if this was something he did every night! Though she knew that not to be the case considering his schedule and when she had joked about him getting laid every night, he had told her that it had only happened a couple of times in high school and since then he had turned every girl that had asked him out down. She had asked if he was gay, and he smiled at her, telling her that he was straight, but perhaps a bit more on the asexual side when it came to sex. After all, he barely watched or read any porn, and didn’t feel like he was missing anything.

It had made her question whether or not she had wanted to ask him out for a bit, but he had said that while he didn’t crave it, he didn’t mind it either. He would just be less likely to initiate it. Now, one could have called this a bit of sexual harassment, but she had been the one to ask after all and she had been wondering about his sexual history, so it was all information she had wanted to know. She had told him that while she had a bit more of a healthy appetite for it, she really didn’t trust men that much, and like him, had only done it a few times, but otherwise tended to take care of herself.

That had been a while ago, before she had asked him out. And finally, after two weeks of trying to schedule, they had managed to find a good day and time to go out on their date. A local pizza place had been what they agreed on, and they went on one of the quieter nights. While they could have gone on a weekend, neither of them wanted to go when it was too crowded and they may have had to wait for a table.

But at least they had both agreed that pizza was good just about any day of the week! And so finally they had gone, and were looking at the menus. Well, at least Tom was looking, Stacey was trying not to stare at him too much. Eventually though he lifted his eyes from the menu and noticed her suddenly move her eyes back to her own list of available foods. He tried to keep himself from grinning.

On Tom’s side, he hadn’t really thought of dating that much. He had gone out with a couple of friends in high school, and had gotten serious with them a couple of times, but both they had amicably stopped dating once they realized that neither of them really liked each other. And they were able to stay friends since they didn’t have those feelings for each other, and the girls he had gone out with eventually started dating within their circle again, getting much more serious, with Tom cheering them along the way.

He hadn’t really thought about dating Stacey at all, but he liked her. She was a no-nonsense girl who seemed like she could and would beat up any guy who tried to harass her. And while she could have been considered scary to anyone who was dating her, she seemed to match his personality a bit more, in that when needing to hold back on going at someone, sarcasm came out instead. And while she had perhaps gotten a bit frustrated at his clear inability to fight, give him a break he hadn’t once thrown a punch in his entire life until he was taken in by the Negaverse! She had never emotionally, psychologically, or physically abused him. She mostly just grit her teeth and continued on with the lessons, repeating herself if need be.

It had been rough at first, but he figured any trainer would be like that when their trainee seemed to make no improvement whatsoever. He couldn’t exactly train at school, and being a beginner he hadn’t tried it out in the field fighting senshi or knights in case he threw his hand out wrong and he came out permanently disabled in some way.

So, he had been quite surprised when she had asked him out suddenly. He hadn’t gone out in a while and Stacey didn’t seem like a bad woman, so he had said yes before they had continued on with their lessons, surprised that it seemed to brighten her up so much. It had been a bit frustrating trying to schedule the date considering that he was so busy with class, and what with taking starseeds out of people, that it had taken longer than she wanted to be able to finally get together. After tonight though, if it went well, Tom would ask her if she wanted to just go to his apartment instead, where he would be much more often, so that they didn’t have to do all of these crazy scheduling puzzles.

He looked over at her again and once again she seemed to duck away from his eyes, acting as though she had been looking at the menu the whole time, when he knew that wasn’t true. Eventually though, the waiter came over and asked what they had wanted. Both of them looked at each other and then said to the waitress, “half extra cheese, half supreme, but with hamburger instead of sausage.” The waitress giggled a bit and asked if that would be all. When they said yes, she went away, and the two looked at each other, blushing a bit. Seems they had more in common than they thought.

Gen. Solos #3-5: 3,090 words

I'm going to get that a**hole now. She thought as Mithra lay in wait for her target to come out. Months ago she had realized that someone from the Negaverse seemed to have been stalking her. And she could tell that they were powerful, so as a basic Dark Mirror senshi she hadn't been willing to confront them and would have run away if need be. However, the agent never seemed to want to attack her for some reason, but they did follow her. It wasn't until after she had drained a person and had left them to wake up in a cold alleyway that the agent would stop following her. She wasn't sure what the reason was, but she suspected it was so that the agent could go and swoop in for some easy energy draining or starseed ripping since she had left them vulnerable. It left a bad taste in her mouth, like she was just collecting victims for this person.

She had to admit that there was a reason that she was draining those targets in the first place, and she didn't really care what happened to them as she did think that they needed to be punished somehow, and at first, she didn't mind the agent taking her victims and doing whatever. They didn't attack her, she didn't go back to look and see who it was, and that was that. Until… the circus façade that she had gone to.

At first, she didn't really think much of the Negaverse, thinking of them more as people who were against the White Moon like she and her fellow senshi were, but after the Circus… seeing that General practically gobble up those starseeds of his unsuspecting victims… she had been angry. How could the Negaverse do that?! Even the Dark Mirror didn't go out of it's way to create horrible atrocities like the Negaverse seemed to do! She just couldn't forgive them for that!

And it seemed that the agent had taken a break a bit before and after it too, which is why she had been able to get away with a bit of energy draining and didn't feel them following her. But last week they had followed her again, and this time she had a plan. She had felt them following her tonight and so she had taken one of the cat-calling a**holes whom she hadn't been able to beat up to the closest park and drained him there… and then acted like she was going away and had powered back into a civilian out of the line of sight from where she felt the agent from. And then she had laid in wait. If there was anything that she had learned, that if she couldn't sense the aura from civilians, then neither could the agents.

She had hidden herself behind a cluster of trees, waiting for the agent to come and do whatever they did to her victim, and soon enough they came from the other side of the park, and lazily went over to the unconscious man that was now sprawled out in the park. Stacey raised an eyebrow, wondering what the heck kind of outfit it was that the agent was wearing… it looked sort of like a plague doctor… weird. But the circus outfit that the general was wearing was weirder, and it's not like she got to choose how her outfit looked either.

However, she resisted the urge to continue to wonder about the outfit and instead kept her focus on the agent. They seemed to be heading toward the body, and that was when she went on the attack! She quickly powered up and shouted "Shrimp Super Punch!" And the agent only had the time to turn their head before she swiftly hit them in the abdomen, making them launch back about 5 feet and landing on the ground, giving an "ugh!" as they landed. It satisfied her, but not enough, and soon enough she had landed on them, and was punching them as hard as she could. The agent, which by now she could tell was a general, was only barely fending off the attacks, or wasn't putting much effort into defending himself, before he summoned his weapon, and soon enough her fist hit the bar of the weapon and she whimpered in pain. "S***!" She said, looking at what was probably going to be a bruised fist for a couple of days. She glared at him. "You b*****d!" She said. "I'm going to **** you up for what you guys did at that Circus!" She said, and right before she sent her fist down again, she heard her name, her civilian name being called out.

"Stacey, stop!"

She paused, mid-punch, utterly shocked that the general knew her civilian name. "But… how…" She couldn't think, her mind was racing. If this general knew what her civilian name was, then perhaps other agents knew who she was? And maybe those other agents would be out to get her… She sent a death-glare at the general. "I'll kill you!" She said, raising her fist to punch him again, though this time with her magic at her side, but the general quickly held up his arms.

"Stacey it's me, Tom! Please listen to me!"

She looked at him like he was crazy, but he wasn't attacking her and his eyes seemed to be telling the truth. But she still didn't trust him. "Then show me. I know that if you're an agent you should be able to turn back into a civilian whenever you want to." She hoped, prayed, even though she wasn't religious! that it wasn't him. She didn't want her boyfriend, the only real man she had ever opened up to, to be a part of all of that. "And I know you aren't him. Tom is… Tom is the nicest guy I know. He wouldn't be with those… murderers." She half-whispered the end of it, because even she knew she was guilty of probably some death. After all, she couldn't guarantee that even if she only drained her victims into unconsciousness that they weren't killed later because they were vulnerable. But she knew she didn't kill on purpose like the Negaverse did! They were the evil ones.

The general seemed to wince at the word 'murderer', for which she was proud. However, whatever confidence she had was shattered, when the agent transformed in front of her, and she found her boyfriend, pinned to the grass beneath her, giving her an 'I'm sorry' look.

Arsenopyrite really hadn't been expecting the night to go the way it had gone. At first he was just following his girlfriend around to see if she would drain someone that he could use for another one of his experiments. He had often done it, she had been a convenient source for them, as he had been running low on subjects to be able to use, and no one would really miss a catcaller, at least most of the female population wouldn't, and they had been easy to take back. And so that's what he had been doing, and of course, once she had wandered off, he was going to go and take his subject back to his lab when suddenly, he felt the aura of a somewhat-stronger Dark Mirror senshi flare to life, and he had looked in the direction of it and suddenly he was flying through the air!

He landed on his back, not his head thank goodness, even a concussion in his general form would have been awful, and he was suddenly being punched in the face. It wasn't until he was able to stop the punches a bit with his weapon that he had realized that Stacey had come back and attacked him.

He knew it was Stacey, he had seen her power down one night when she was still a basic Dark Mirror senshi, and so after that he tended to follow her a bit, usually getting a laugh when she would go and beat up anyone unfortunate enough to try and harass her.

So tonight, he hadn't been expecting to be the target of her violence! But it seemed that she had gotten annoyed with him following her, and he hadn't been surprised that she had gone straight to the punching, which is why Arseno had tried to stop her when he called out her name. Unfortunately, it seemed that he had done the wrong thing, and now realized why she was so adamant on beating the crud out of him. She had a burning hatred, it seemed, from whatever had happened at that Circus. He had only been privy to the details from talking to other agents who had been there, but it was bad. He knew she had been suffering about it in silence since she probably didn't think it was the wisest idea to go and tell her boyfriend about such a thing in the first place. **** he thought. He now knew that she really did have a reason to hate the Negaverse. I should have told her earlier. But I just… he just what? Didn't want to ruin the first real serious relationship that he had had or that… could he really be in love with someone? It was sad, but he had to admit it now. He loved her, and he didn't want her to leave, which is why he hadn't told her… but the cat was out of the bag now, and he would have to show her who he was…

He hated to be such a disappointment to her. And to see her broken face when he had powered down and she could confirm it was him… He couldn't stand it!

Mithra got off of… Tom. Could she even really call him her boyfriend at this point? She felt so betrayed! How could he! How could such a nice guy be part of such an awful, awful thing?! How could he not tell her! She turned away, starting to cry. How could he! How dare he!? She thought in-between her racing thoughts. She sobbed. She hadn't cried in such a long time, how could she now?

Suddenly though she felt a pair of arms encircle her, but she could tell it wasn't from Tom. It was from the General. She wheeled around to tell him off, but this time she could see his face. His mask was down, and he had taken off the hat. And now that she had seen him become a civilian, she could now see through the magic that kept them from being recognized between civilian and powered, and could see Tom. He looked at her and she saw… something. Something there that she wasn't sure that she wanted to recognize. She hiccupped another cry, trying not to become a blubbering mess in front of him.

She isn't running away, I suppose that's a good thing. Arseno thought to himself as he tried to think of what to do or say in this situation. He had hoped that he would be telling her in a much calmer manner but… it was too late now. "Stacey, I'm sorry. I only barely know what happened at the Circus, and I promise you that I had no idea what was going on. If I did, I never would have let you, or Cynthia, go. I wouldn't have even let my brother suggest it. I would have ripped the tickets up myself. Stacey, if possible, I would like you to believe me. I know you're upset." If there was one thing he learned, it was that commanding her to do anything while she was upset, it would mean violence and he knew it would be deserved. Not that he thought that domestic violence coming from a woman was okay, just that he knew what her backstory was and that no significant other should be commanded by the other to somehow control their feelings.

"Stacey, I don't know what you know, but they don't tell us what's going on most of the time. In fact, a lot of my fellow agents have been the targets of these Negaverse attacks. I hate that. But I was forced into all of this and while I could leave… I could never join you Stace. I can't become a senshi. I never was a senshi. I have wished so many times over that I could join you in the Dark Mirror, but I can't. I'm a… was probably a knight or related to a knight. I have no senshi in my blood." He was rambling a bit now, he supposed to try and justify why he was staying in the Negaverse even when they committed such atrocities, but he was trying to show her he was there for a reason, and that reason was one he thought would be good for this world. And she seemed to be listening at least, she had stopped crying.

"This way… this way I can be on your side, though I know the Negaverse and the Dark Mirror aren't exactly allies anymore. But if I were to become a White Moon, I would have to abandon everything, even you. And, I can't stand to lose you! I… I know I really shouldn't be saying this, as I am right now, but I'll tell you everything. I promise I will. I'm just, so sorry you had to find out this way Stace." He said, dropping his hands from her arms, feeling more defeated every second.

It was the end, he could tell that it was. Of course she would hate him now. "I hate that the Negaverse does such things as the Circus, and if you are willing, I would like you to tell me about it later. It's not right that it happened, and I hate that we are in the dark all the time as agents. If I had known anything… I'm sorry Stace. I'm so sorry." It was all he could say really, mostly because blurting out 'I love you!' now would be a terrible thing and would probably drive her away.

Through the anger that was now churning in her head, she managed to listen to what Tom had to say. And she believed him. Or at least it had confirmed something that had been nagging her inside, which was seeing that even fellow agents of that stupid Circus general had been attacked and were fighting against him. It seemed that even the agents didn't like to be tricked. And throughout their entire relationship, Tom had been quite open with her. And he didn't seem to be keeping any secrets, except for this one it seemed, from her. Her anger continually abated until it was finally gone. She believed him. Even though there had been scores of awful men who had tried to be with her or who had tried to do something to her, he had never done so. And she knew he had his reasons for keeping it a secret.

She looked at him, her eyes still red and a bit wet from crying. "How did you know who I was?"

He gave her a small smile. "I saw you drain some catcaller a while back while you were still a basic senshi. And then I saw you turn back into a civilian." He said, giving her a small, but sad, smile.

She sighed, of course that had happened, but thank goodness it was him and not someone else. She walked up to him, as he had stepped away from her, and put her arms around his neck, and he instinctively held her waist. "Tom… you need to tell me everything about this." She said, trying not to cry again. He nodded. "I just… what happened at the Circus was so awful. But if even their own agents don't know, I can't hold it against you and… I would hate to lose you too." She said, giving him a small smile. He blushed, and she decided against telling him how much the two brothers were alike. "Just… I just need to think about this and I would like to get to bed." She said, before giving him a quick peck on the lips, silently telling him that she had forgiven him.

Tom nodded, glad that she was willing to talk to him about all of this and blushed a bit more when she had kissed him. He hadn't been expecting it, nor the giggle that came from her once she saw how he was reacting. He sighed but gave her another small smile. "All right. I can take you to my apartment if you want? I know that my bed is a lot comfier than yours, at least from what you've said, and I can go and sleep on the couch if you want the room." He didn't want to push her into anything, even if that was just going to bed and doing nothing other than sleeping on the same mattress. He could tell that she was tired, and the information was resting heavily on her. He didn't want to drive her crazy by making her do anything or guilt her into doing something she didn't want to do.

She thought about it for a moment and realized that Tom probably had the best idea. As much as she just wanted to go back to her apartment and fall asleep straight onto the mattress, she knew that his was just so much nicer, that she couldn't resist his offer. And she knew that he wouldn't put his hands on her. Heck, she had to initiate every session they had, she would be wondering who the heck had invaded his body if he laid a perverted hand on her! "All right, though you don't have to sleep on the couch. We can share the bed since it's big enough for the both of us and even Blujeans." She had to take the cat into account of course.

Tom smiled, a lot wider this time. "Of course, I can't guarantee that he won't try to snuggle with you. Here, hold onto me, I can teleport us close to my apartment and then we can power down and walk from there." He said, making sure that she was ready for it, and off they went.

And of course, they completely ignored the fact that there had been an unconscious man within feet of them the whole time.