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He felt her signature, but Babylon couldn't get a fix on the corrupt senshi long enough to figure out if she was trailing him specifically or just in the area coincidentally. Fearing the former, he entered into a holding pattern, circling the financial district's alleyways and hoping to either lose his tail or come up with some kind of trap. There'd be hell to pay if he accidentally led someone to the safe-house's front steps.

That, and he was pretty sure Avalon still had her bounty out on him, and that was enough to make anyone nervous. Not that he'd ever met anyone else who Avalon had set a bounty on... but, hypothetically...

One false step lead to another, and a moment later he was cursing his stupidity: this alley was a dead-end, slick with rain from earlier, and the only way out was the way he'd come. Babylon concentrated for a moment, sensed the corrupt senshi:

Close. Closing.

"s**t," swore Babylon, raising his lantern. Best just engage her here and get it over with. (He'd assumed a her. He didn't actually know.)

She was tiny, thought Babylon as the senshi came into view, which was to his advantage. She was also an eternal (it was hard to tell with corrupt senshi auras! They bled energy like a stuck pig), which was to his disadvantage. "I'm used to it," he quipped, raising his lantern.

"So what is this?" he asked, refusing to back away from her approach. He shifted his focus to his magic, and the light in his lantern flared, casting a wide circle around him. Babylon tried to remain casual, to compensate for the spell he was casting. "You're just here to ruin my night?" Tiny girl with unimaginable power behaving menacingly? Totally not anything to worry about.

Except for the part where it sort of totally was.

Before she even began her reply, he had a sinking feeling that this was likely to do with Avalon.

"I thought it might be that," said Babylon, and his magic faded now that he had the answer he'd been looking for. She was close - close enough that if she wanted to, she could reach inside his chest and yank out his starseed before he could even get up a good defense - and having gone through that once already this month, he was really not keen to repeat the experience.

He took two steps back, raising his lantern defensively in front of his chest. "Then I guess I don't have to be sorry that I'm not going to let you do that," he said. Perhaps his bluster could even the playing field with the petite powerhouse.

"She's been trying for months to get me to come to her side. She couldn't bring me in herself - what makes you think you'll have any better luck?" he challenged, heart pounding in his ears.

Though she be but tiny, thought Babylon, she is fierce. He'd tried to twist out of the way of her punch, but it she'd still managed to land a good enough hit that his ribs would be sore in the morning. This put her in grabbing distance, he quickly realized - good for him. Perhaps some would call it playing dirty, but Babylon made a grab for Persephone's hair and yanked sharply.

"Yeah?" he asked. "Well, you've got no idea what I can do, either."

Actually, most of the time, he had no idea what he could do.

It occurred to him to just punch her in the face a few times and be done with her, but that seemed like a cheap shot. He gave the senshi what he meant to be a hard shove instead, and then whisked his fingers briefly over his signet ring, feeling power wash over him. So they were showing off, were they? He could show off.

Lantern held tight, Babylon stepped forwards and took a low swing for the Persephone, aiming for her gut.

"What?" the knight asked in confusion as the mist began to spread. Then it hit him - literally hit him - like a ton of bricks, the smarting bruise on his side flaring like a cracked rip. "Ugh," grunted Babylon, his head spinning from the sickly-sweet smell. All he could think to concentrate on was getting away: he didn't want to kill this girl, didn't want to fight her, and if she would not back down, then that meant he would have to.

He took one more swing with his lantern, hoping to stun Persephone long enough to flee, and then turned without waiting to see the results of his actions and ran. Even if she'd only flinched it would be enough, he thought. The pain from her attack began to fade as he leapt onto a roof, but the knight did not stop. If she made any moves to pursue--

He did his best to put about half a mile between them, before dropping his henshin and joining the crowd queueing up at a bus stop. Finn took a few shaky breaths and pressed a hand against his side. All this was leading up to a conversation with Avalon that he was not looking forward to.