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Captain Uranophane was irritated. Captain Uranophane was frustrated. Captain Uranophane was, in general, extremely displeased with her current predicament, and as such down the streets was roaming the surliest-faced Negaverse officer that had ever been witnessed. She looked like she had recently bitten down on a rotten lemon, her shoulders hackled upward and her features contorted with a most unpleasant expression.

In broad daylight.

Because she had a quadruple energy-quota to fulfill. And that s**t took <********. Hematite.

The fact that at the end she would have to turn it in to Hematite, who now outranked her, destroyed any satisfaction that getting the job done would have had. She felt no better being a little over halfway done than she had just getting started. All she felt was exhaustion, and a peculiar soreness all over her body that really couldn't be compared to anything mundane. Who'd have thought that energy draining could be so... god damned draining?

Uranophane had been at it for hours. Saunter down the street, hide in the shadows, drain a crowd of people; rinse, repeat. At the very least she'd been lucky enough that she was getting this done without any interruptions.

The Negaverse Captain had just zeroed her focus on another gaggle passersby. Her gloved hand was readied, fingers curled upward and twitching a bit as she concentrated, waiting for the familiar sensation that would come with the energy streaming into the air just above her palm. It took a lot of focus, and was actually very easy to break in lower-ranked in inexperienced officers.

As a matter of fact, Egeria's small hands tugging at the back of her coat was just enough to make the proverbial threads snap!

The first response she would get from the taller androgyne was a raspy growl of frustration. Then Uranophane slowly turned around to face the source of the interruption, her agitation tangible even from behind the glowing goggles that concealed her eyes.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," she huffed. It was a chibi senshi, of all things! That was something she's only ever heard of. Actually running to one was... well, just as underwhelming as she had figured it would be. Definitely not worth the attention she was trying to get, at any rate. "Why don't you run along and bother someone who does?"

And then her focus quickly returned to her task. The target she'd been eyeing had long since walked off... so she began walking through the alley in the hope she'd spot another.

Anyone who bothered to peek into the alleyways would have been treated with an unusual sight as the chibi senshi redoubled her grip and dug her heels into the ground, trying to get the Negaverse Captain to stop. Unfortunately, her attempts to grind Uranophane to a halt were barely even creating a hindrance. Her adversary marched on and dragged her right on along, the chibi senshi skiing from the hem of her coat on the concrete.

"What I'm doing is none of your business," Uranophane growled. She kind of couldn't stand kids. People always said just to ignore them if they started acting out too much, but try that and they would counter by becoming twice as annoying.

Regardless, it was the only thing she could do for the moment if she wanted to make up for the time she'd already lost. Her focus zeroed in on another group of people and she outstretched her hand again, trying to will their life energy to travel to the space above it. Not an easy feat with the brat in the way, but after a moment she'd managed a flickering little circle that floated and grew over her palm.

The slowly growing energy orb at Uranophane's fingertips shuddered and sputtered at the attempted distractions, but with some extra effort put into her focus she was able to keep it intact while still collecting more. Her handiwork could also be seen on the sidewalk a ways away from they were standing: a small gaggle of summer-vacationing schoolgirls were becoming more sluggish in their bantering, their postures wilting like neglected flowers in the summer heat.

Finally, one more step in her tedious mission accomplished! As the orb began to solidify into a pearl, the Captain figured that she would need only one or two more pulls of this size to consider her job do--

Powered up or no, a kick in the shin was still a kick in the shin. Coupled with the kind obnoxious shrieking that only a child could do effectively, Uranophane couldn't help but buckle on the spot, just enough for her hand to flinch and her prize to drop and shatter on the concrete.

It was hard to decide what was more telling: her infuriated speechlessness, or how she finally, slowly, turned around to face her adversary. Their gazes met, goggles-to-eyes, and for a long moment Uranophane just stared down at Egeria like she was an insect just begging to be squashed.

"You're a persistent little brat, aren't you?" growled Uranophane, her teeth clacking and grinding against each other as she finished her words. "I'm going to tell you one more time... none of this if your business. You should get out of my sight unless you want to run into someone less nice than I'm being." She crossed her arms irritably, glowering with all the irritation of a bad substitute teacher.

"I have a colleague or two who wouldn't hesitate to kill you, brat. So go away."

"Because. You are. A senshi," replied Uranophane tersely, one angry finger pointing at the chibi's tiara. "And senshi don't belong here. They've caused a lot of problems that have gotten a lot of people killed." Her frown deepened further, a feat in and of itself. "The only reason I'm letting you go is that you're honestly not much of a threat... and maybe there's some hope for the senshi of your generation learning their place."

She crossed her arms, and harrumphed. "I'm Uranophane, an officer of the Negaverse." Telling the brat her name didn't seem like it would cause any real problems, so she finally relented on that one. "There. You've gotten your answers. Happy?"

"Yes, and the very first Thanksgiving dinner had turkey and pumpkin pie," replied the Captain, deadpan and condescending. "Good to know that the educational system is just as broken for senshi children as it is for human children." Her lip curled in disgust at the thoughts she had invariably led herself to: the idea of senshi, breeding. Could they produce more senshi that way? Hopefully, they would never find out.

"Anyway, haven't you ever heard of listening to both sides of the story before making assumptions? Seriously." Uranophane's eyebrows furrowed ever further at the child. "Senshi are aliens trying to take advantage of the only planet in the galaxy that's still alive. All of their planets are ruined because of their mistakes. All the Negaverse is doing is making sure they don't make the SAME mistakes on Earth."

Egeria's rebuttal was left unanswered, but the Negaverser's expression was practically daring the child to try.

"Whatever you say, kid," said Uranophane. She really didn't care either way what Egeria thought or said. She was a child. And a senshi. That was a formula for complete and utter ignorance if there ever was one. Handwaving the opinions of others was something the Captain was fairly practiced at; doing the same in this situation was above breathing on her list of things that were easy to do. If she could just shake the child off once and for all, her day would be golden even with being set behind.

The chibi senshi would probably find her opponent's weapon amusing enough even without having to work her magic on it. By all appearances it was a simple pen accompanied by an equally simple clipboard, both of which blinked into existence with a small pop! into casually outstretched hands.

"Do your worst."