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Hydor did not usually make his way to the parks, more interested in staying as far from greenery as possible, but there was some kind of event on campus that evening and, honestly, he wanted as little to do with it as possible. The park was likely comparatively quiet, so he henshined up and practically ran away to the park.

It was his misfortune, then, that he felt the oppressive energy that he was starting to recognize as belonging to someone of Chaos. It made his bones ache, especially at the level he was feeling. It was likely whoever was emitting the energy was more powerful than he was. Perhaps they were uninterested in fighting, though. If they were uninterested, Hydor could talk to them. Perhaps gain some more answers to his burning questions.

Especially since something felt different about the oppression of this energy. It was still clearly Chaotic, but it did not give off the same feeling as the energy he tended to feel from the agents he had run into so far. It was possible she was just another type of agent, but he felt that he knew better, and he especially knew better once he saw her. This was not an agent, so it must have been a member of that dark mirror Bernard had mentioned. Interesting.

Now she was speaking to nothing, perhaps because she had sensed him and was trying to beckon him over.

He would behoove her, if only so he could ask her more about her status.

"It is a park. What were you expecting, a party?" Hydor strolled over, brow quirked and arms crossed. "If you want a party, go to Destiny City University. Evidently, they cannot even shut up for the ******** summer."

He pinched his nose, partially to calm himself down and partially to remind himself that he probably should not go around talking about DCU. They may be able to put two and two together from that.

"Oh, really?" His voice was so heavy with sarcasm that it might have buried itself into the grass beneath his feet. "You will be sorely disappointed."

Honestly, he did not care if she was, so long as she did not attack him. Fighting was something he was almost never in the mood for. He would rather have to take another English class than actually try to defend himself. Would he even defend himself? Perhaps he would just let it happen.

It was curious that she stated that both university and partying were not for her. Was she too far into her senshi duties, or too stupid to see that college was required for living at all with the current state of the economy? Hydor tilted his head, but did not comment on that, instead moving on to the next part of her questioning. "I also have no interest in partying. It is a waste of time, and often a waste of money." He was fairly sure that everything involved with this gathering was mostly free for students, but it was not free of social interaction. His dislike of social interaction overrode his desire to not pay for things.

Hydor tapped his foot.

"Anyway, I came over here because I presumed you were not just trying to speak to air, Dark Mirror." He presumed that if she was not a Dark Mirror Senshi, he would be corrected. He would proceed accordingly in that situation. "What brings you out here, then? Do you enjoy creeping around playgrounds?"

So much for civility.

He was fairly sure that "fight anyone who gets in my way," was supposed to be a threat, but it basically flew right over his head and landed somewhere off to the side.

That was nice.

She was definitely threatening him with her further comments, but that was honestly just amusing Hydor. He snorted when she suggested he should somehow know better, not really giving a s**t what she thought he should know and not know. Also, why the ******** was she calling him office-senshi? Did it have something to do with whatever getup his supposedly former homeworld had come up with?

He spared a glance to one of his sleeves before looking back to the Dark Mirror.

"I have no interest in fighting you, Dark Mirror." Hydor swatted at the air, rolling his eyes. "That is a waste of time. You are not stealing starseeds, so I am uncertain that my quarrel is truly with you, anyway." He did not exactly quarrel with the Negaverse either, but perhaps making it clearer that he had no intention of actually fighting her would make her stand down. The oppressive energy coming off her body made it obvious that she was stronger than him. Hydor was not a fool.

Besides, she said something earlier that was unfamiliar to him.

"You say you have wraiths. Are these similar to youma?"

It made sense that a Dark Mirror senshi would have more information on the Dark Mirror than Bernard did, but still, she managed to give him a lot of information at once. He noted it down mentally, not interrupting her with any more snark for at least a couple moments.

He was not fond of the idea of draining energy, but energy could be recovered. It did not imply any level of permanent destruction in the way that consuming starseeds did. He supposed that draining energy could be ignored in favor of the bigger problem. In theory, they would have to deal with the problem of draining energy once the problem of starseed eating was resolved, but he was not 'they.' Did his side even have a cohesive unit to deal with any of this?

"Considering you do not make a habit of consuming souls, it seems fairly obvious to me that you and the Negaverse are not one and the same." Hydor shrugged, shifting his weight to one leg in a position that might have been a bit more relaxed. Maybe.

His general disposition seemed to be tense at all times.

He did note that she stated her quarrel was with 'White Moon'--he still found that name goofy at best--that rejected energy draining. Would she not attack him unless he objected to that behavior? "Do you consider the Negaverse to be an enemy, or a friend, in that case?" He tilted his head. "Would you actively attack a member of the Negaverse?"

While Hydor had not attended the circus, he had definitely heard of the circus by this point. It had been brought up a few times, and he had seen the related news reports when it happened. Naturally, the news reports did not mention anything about a general just gulping down a bunch of souls. That would require exposure to the public of an actual war going on underneath their noses, and there was no way they could have that...

He wondered if there would be any benefit to exposing the general populace of the evil of the Negaverse. Perhaps they could launch the civilian military onto them.

Considering they were yanking civilian souls and popping them like they were some kind of treat, they deserved literally everything that came to them.

"Disgusting," responded Hydor, turning his head away from the moment. He did not care much for other people and their suffering, but something about the idea of the permanence of just eating another person's soul ate at his own. It hurt. It angered him. It made him want to tear through the Negaverse and find their source of power and choke them to death. Slowly.

Hydor took a deep breath. His fists unclenched.

"If that is the case, there is that old adage -- 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend', correct? If you attack them on sight," for the most part, he would ignore the bit where she claimed some were alright -- anyone who was on that side, forcibly or not, was now part of the problem, and they could figure out how to escape it if they truly wished, "then they are also your enemy. I do not make friends, but I do appreciate that there is no reason for me to attack your kind for the moment."

Until the threat was gone, and the Dark Mirror no longer had a common enemy.

He shifted, crossing his arms over his chest. "It seems your power source is different. What makes you a Dark Mirror and not a member of their faction?"

The information that Mithra had casually added that they used to be allies was certainly of interest to Hydor. Why would the Dark Mirror ally themselves to the Negaverse? Did it contain more advantages for them to be part of them same team? Were they actually more okay with their actions than Mithra was letting on? It was curious, and it was something Hydor was fairly sure he would need to keep an eye on.

This war sounded like a web, which suited just about everything he had ever learned in history classes.

... Wait --

"You mention this mirrorspace." Hydor's voice sounded at least mildly curious now. It was some of his surprise leaking into his voice. "Was your faction by any chance involved with ... that event, a few months ago, the one that sucked me through a mirror?" He would not add that he was a civilian at the time. It was unnecessary for him to confirm that he was a recent senshi, though that was likely obvious via whatever power signature he projected and the fact that he was asking her what were well-known questions in the first place. He was asking these questions so he could rid himself of that impression.

"The path seemed able to continue making itself, which would follow with the idea that you can make your own worlds, there."

That explained a lot, actually. For months, Hydor had been trying to figure out what had caused that, exactly, and how he had ended up involved in it, and all it took was becoming one of the strange people in strange outfits with strange powers himself. It had confounded him for months with no answers, and now?

He scoffed under his breath.

That ******** easy.

He was fairly sure that everything that happened in this forsaken city was somehow connected to this underground war. He fully expected to find out eventually that his statistics professor from the prior semester had been a Negaverse agent. It would have been fitting, at the very least. Oral requirement his a**-- "A queen was trying to kill you in Mirrorspace. Sounds... great." It did not. "I am going to presume you resolved the issue, seeing as we are no longer in the mirror."

If they had not, Hydor was uncertain he could really trust them as allies. Considering they seemed to be the root of that problem in the first place...

It was interesting to hear that the Dark Mirror had a goal that specifically involved reacting to either the success of the Negaverse or the failure of again with that name White Moon. "Interesting. So you plan to make a home for life by taking energy from ... that same life." Seemed marginally effective, but at least energy could be recovered. It sounded a bit like a blood drawing. Add blood to a blood bank so perhaps a life could be saved later. "How well would you say making your Earth-replacement is going? Is it livable now, or is it mostly just specialized areas like your gym?"