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He was livid.

It hadn’t been as hard as he’d thought, finding star seeds to crush. A woman and her child, on their way home from the park, had proven worthy victims for his angry need. The woman hadn’t had enough time to scream before his hand had entered her chest, the child’s cry silenced shortly afterwards.

On a regular day, he would have thought twice before killing a child.

This was not a regular day.

Crushing the seeds had been more difficult than obtaining them, but dropping them to the ground and crushing them under one heel seemed to work just fine.

He could only hope to remember their faces when he finally found the senshi that had betrayed him because he wanted to tell little Kari all about it.

He appeared startled by her voice.

Epidote hadn’t expected her to come. With Themisto having arrived in her stead, he had assumed that she’d run off, tail between her legs, determined to avoid seeing him for as long as she could.

But she was there. She’d come.

Probably to gloat, knowing these senshi types. It wasn’t surprising in that way, simply surprising that she’d decided to be brave enough to show up without an escort this time.

Gauntlet at the ready, he appeared from around the swingset, where the unfortunate woman had the unfortunate timing to meet an unfortunate ending, along with her child. The stroller remained nearby, a dead child laying within. Its mother was not as fortunate, her body limp and lifeless against the pavement of the park.

“You have some nerve, showing up after what you did to me, Kari.”

His voice is not as gruff as he would like it to be - gruff voices did not come with the promotion to Captain level. Clearly he will need to work on his gruff in the future.

“But it’s okay.” He smirked, arms folding across his chest as he stared down the Super Senshi. “I’ve already taken out my anger on someone else.”

He didn’t accept her hand, just like he didn’t accept her excuse.

“A nap, huh?”

The disbelief was evident in his voice as he stared her down. “Funny, how you say you were napping when you were busy sending one of your little buddies to come and attack me, right around the time we were supposed to meet.”

His boot slid to the side as he took a stance. It was tempting, pulling out his gauntlet and showing her how mad he really was. But there was no sense in wasting more energy than he’d already exerted for the evening, especially not when she probably had others en route, even as they spoke. If they were anything like Themisto, they’d be even more pains in his a** than the Captain wanted to deal with.

He’d just wanted a nice, quiet night of collecting some easy energy.

“I’m not going to hurt anyone, Kari,” He said reassuringly, a hint of mockery in his tone. One glove moved out to gesture towards the swing set as he added, “At least, not anyone else.”

Epidote’s eyes narrowed as he listened to her prattle on and on. She claimed not to know what he was talking about, but it was hard to determine if her nervous words were because he’d outed her or because she was being genuine in her response.

Either way, she was offering herself up to him and it would be rather rude not to accept some free energy, right?

While the gauntlet was forced to remain on, the other glove was removed and casually cast aside. It would return - it always did - and he was too distracted with the offering to bother finding a place to tuck it.

Her smile was met with one of his, though it lacked the sincerity - or the attempt at sincerity - that hers offered. She’d made a mention of Stella and Epidote knew that he needed to at least return home with something, seeing as his two star seeds were now ground powder at the bottom of his boot.

The temptation to grab her by her throat was there, but he behaved himself. There was no sense scaring her off for a second time, after all. Instead, fingers brushed against her cheek and held on to her jaw, similar to how he’d done when they’d first met one another.

“Of course you’ll be good, Kari,” he said softly, a tinge of bitterness still in his voice. His chest hurt like hell from Themisto’s attack, but he was certain it would feel better once her energy was resting in his subspace. “Or else you know what will happen, right?”

"Of course you're sorry, doll. You got caught."

He enjoyed her groveling. He was enjoying it a bit too much, truth be told, as the mocking grin grew vicious. A soft golden glow appeared in his other palm the energy slowly siphoning itself from the Super.

The Captain found himself taken aback for a brief moment as he watched her nuzzling his palm, gentle and almost... affectionate? Was she... could she...

But the thought dashed its way out of his head the moment she started pestering him about the other Captain.
It was almost irrational, how angry he found himself getting at her persistent questioning about his sister and her feelings. Stella was important, yes, but this was Epi's plans, for once. His shining achievement! Didn't that count for something?!

"You don't need to worry about Stella, baby, I told you," The hand gently squeezed her cheek while the other hastily stored away the first energy orb she'd already supplied him with, "She isn't the one you need to worry about pleasing."

Dipping forward, turquoise eyes stared her down as he positioned his nose a mere inch away from hers, allowing her to feel his breath, his gaze, his presence as he drew uncomfortably close to her. "It's me that you need to be concerned about."

He felt the tug on his uniform, fingers entwining themselves around the fabric as she gripped on to him. The smile lingered on his face, the younger man noting the flushed color creeping across her cheeks.

"You'd like that, wouldn't you? Getting kissed by the man taking advantage of you, the one who could do anything he wanted to you?"

Leaning closer, his nose bumped alongside hers as his mouth rested directly in front of hers. Hovering but not touching, save for the faintest of brushings as he whispered softly, "You don't deserve the honor."

The hand on her cheek squeezed the flesh harshly as he drew back, laughing loudly. A simple shove forward and distance was thrust between them, a second energy orb resting in the palm of his gauntlet hand.

"I don't care much for Stella's leftovers as it is," He mused aloud, almost delightfully as he preened, one boot kicking up in front of the other. The orb was tossed in the air and caught in his opposite, gloveless palm before he turned back to look at her. "Though I'm sure you can work your way back into my good graces enough to see how well I'd spoil a good little girl as opposed to a bad one, hm?"

The orb was tossed again, this time disappearing mid-throw into the subspace beyond. "I'm afraid that you've been very bad, though, so I had to take matters into my own hands. What sort of teacher would I be if you didn't learn a lesson, right?"

Gesturing out towards the swingset, his focus had returned to his previous victims. "Kind of sad that the kid won't be around to see the Negaverse win, y'know?"

“You came, but so did Themisto.”

The bite to his bark wasn’t missed as he sneered at the super senshi, “Your friend decided to be valiant and try to defend your honor. Isn’t that sweet of him?’

So sweet that it gave Epidote cavities - he wanted nothing more than to squash both of the super senshi, especially after they made him look a fool. He was a Captain, for goodness’ sake!

“But that’s okay, since neither you nor him had to pay the ultimate price. Not like your friends over there.”

He gestured again, making a point to the woman and child that she refused to check on. The woman’s body had grown pale by that point - he could only imagine the child in the stroller having done the same, if not sooner.

Death was not something that Epidote thrived on, but… it did the job, at least. And heck - it made him one hell of a bad guy, right??

He seemed amused by her request, his voice almost light hearted. “I’d consider if, if their star seeds weren’t lining the bottom of my boot right now…”

“Wait, your what?”

Talk of the victims, ashen and pale and abandoned on the sidewalk, was pushed aside as the new information was coming to light in Epidote’s eyes.

Themisto was Kari’s boyfriend?


“So you’ve been mackin’ on my --- Stella and you’ve been going at it with that parachute pants poof this whole time?”

The look on his face was incredulous, breaking out into a genuine grin. “Oh, this is rich. This is rich.”

Returning to the victims, he leaned down and plucked the purse from the side of the dead mother. Rifling through her belongings, he continued to think about all of the new, delicious information that Kari had given him just then.

“I wonder what would happen,” he mused idly, “If Themisto knew you were ********’ around with the Negaverse, then. And I don’t mean just being an energy slut for us.”