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The pulse of a corrupted eternal's energy was unfortunately not unfamiliar. He wished there were less of them around. The way their bodies were clearly mutilated, holes in their foreheads and chests, sat even less correct in his gut than the agents themselves did. The half-youma were, perhaps, worse, being partially monstrous themselves, but there was something uniquely terrifying about the concept of a senshi being taken and being turned into something to work for what might-as-well have been demons.

But the corrupted senshi scared him a bit less, these days; part of his original fear was that he, himself, could become one of them.

Now he knew he couldn't.

And they couldn't even try to take his starseed, either.

It admittedly gave him more confidence, even when approaching auras that had typically given him pause. It was why he ran across the roofs above and dropped onto the aura he sensed without another thought, landing behind the woman he shortly recognized as--

Stillwaterite.

Considering he had seen the starseeds she had kept in her coat pocket, to see her pinning some dude against the wall with her hand raised to yank his starseed hardly came as a surprise. It was his job to stop that from becoming a reality, though, and so he attempted to scoop his arms under her arms and yank her backwards, with the intention of getting her away from what looked to be a rather defenseless man. Perhaps it'd give him time to leave.

"Stillwaterite," replied Encke, flatly, to the announcement of his name.

He knew he was obvious. Not only did his hands and his face glow, his whole outfit did. The fact that Stillwaterite knew who he was without even seeing his face didn't exactly come as a surprise. What did come as a surprise was the fact that she touched a hand to his skin, and it took a moment for Encke to realize why, but when he did, he dropped her arms in an attempt to disconnect them.

As a transcendent senshi, he knew he had quite a bit of extra energy to share, and he was willing to share it as needed. Hell, he could choose to share it, and had a few times! A corrupted senshi who made a habit of stealing starseeds didn't qualify as someone who needed it.

No one on Chaos qualified as needing it, really, but--

Her mentioning that he wouldn't believe her if she mentioned the dude touched her first admittedly complicated things. Chaos or not, if that perhaps not-so-defenseless man was touching her in any way, he absolutely deserved to be smacked around, but killed? Encke had a much harder time justifying that, especially with the permanence taking a starseed implied, and he frowned, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Even if he did," Encke cleared his throat, "don't just go yanking out someone's soul for being a creep. Just knee him in the balls or something."

Unfortunately dropping her meant he lost his advantage, but at least he could continue to keep his eyes on her. Hopefully she didn't do that annoying as hell teleportation non--

She had managed to get some of his energy from him. Encke's eyes went to the orb, as small as it was, and he couldn't help anxiously clenching and unclenching a fist. On one hand, the fact that she consumed it meant that at the very least it wasn't going to anyone worse than she was, like say, Metallia herself. On the other hand, the fact that she just stole his energy and ate it meant that she definitely just stole his energy and ate it. Some part of him had just gone into feeding the machine that was keeping Destiny City terrorized.

Dios--

It was taking quite a bit of control not to back her against the wall at the moment, though he did advance a bit closer.

"Creep or not, that's your opinion, and him being a creep doesn't justify murder." Admittedly, the concept of someone getting cornered by that man who couldn't defend themselves was terrifying, and he knew that unfortunately happened all too often. Maybe not with that particular not-so-defenseless a*****e, but harassment was far too common. If he saw that happening in front of him, he would absolutely interfere. Wouldn't murder, though. Probably just knee him in the balls himself. Maybe toss him down the alley. Not a bad idea.

-- Why was he even debating with her again she just stole his energy --

"Do you have any other starseeds on you tonight, Stillwaterite?" asked Encke, impatiently.

"And you are?" shot Encke back, in turn, quirking a brow.

Frankly, he barely gave two shits about what the law of the land actually was, considering that their very existence as powered beings probably shattered that. He was pretty sure that if the government knew about their existence to any significant level, they would just be experimentation fodder--

But Stillwaterite mentioned it, so he'd turn it back on her.

Encke caught the way that her fingers were twitching, and he kept an eye on them, but he did also notice her vague answer that likely told him all he needed to know. Of course she had a starseed on her. Possibly multiple. She did last time. There was no reason to think that she didn't now. That meant that he had to retrieve them, no matter the cost.

... But considering, the cost wouldn't be too great to handle.

He advanced closer.

"I'll get lost when you hand over what you have on you, Stillwaterite."

"I am protecting innocents," snapped Encke, narrowing his eyes, taking another step forward, "from you."

He was expecting her to stay where she was, considering she already had her hand at the ready to do whatever she was considering. He wasn't necessarily expecting her to choose to lunge at him instead, and it caught him off-guard, knocking him off-balance. Plenty used to catching his balance considering he enjoyed free-running, he planted his foot behind him to stop himself from tumbling over. Catching himself probably made it easier for her to sink her hand into his chest, and he couldn't help the strangled gasp that escaped his lips when he felt her try.

He felt his blood run cold for a second, several seconds, maybe longer, wondering if this was going to be the end of him, because he couldn't just let Stillwaterite do whatever--

Wait.

He knew better than that.

The piped monster had tried this once before and failed. He knew it would fail. His starseed wasn't free for the taking anymore.

Nice try.

Encke couldn't help the almost uncharacteristic cackle that came from his lips when the burst of white surrounded him and blasted Stillwaterite against the wall, stunning her and leaving him with the advantage. He decided to take this opening to walk over and shove his hand into the pocket he saw her put the starseeds in last time, working to fish them out.

There they were.

Encke wrapped his hand around the ones he could, attempting to be careful considering that these were souls he was holding, when he felt Stillwaterite come to enough that she grasped his exposed arm with both of hers.

The rapid drain was dizzying, the sensation of energy suddenly leaving his body about as jarring as it might have felt to have his heartbeat stop. Encke kept his grip on the starseeds, because he couldn't let them go, and tried to gather his focus so he could get himself away from her. His vision felt like it was swimming. Maybe that was the drowsiness?

Encke gathered his strength and yanked his arm backwards suddenly, keeping his grip on the starseeds he felt. If he succeeded in getting her grip off him, he moved to put some distance between them.

Maybe he should just say his attack and leave while he was ahead...

Perhaps he should have just taken his chance and ran.

Still a bit too dazed from the sudden dip in his energy reserves, Encke processed that she was saying something to him and didn't really have time to attempt to drop and roll out of the way, or run, or really do much of anything other than curl his body defensively around the starseeds he was now holding, more concerned with them than himself. He'd be fine.

There was a resounding crack when he felt himself smash against the wall, though, and Encke let out a groan of pain, biting hard down on his lip to stop himself from saying anything else. He couldn't let Stillwaterite feel that she had any advantage over him now, of course.

He still had the starseeds, and she had failed at her attempt to take his life. He still had the upper hand here, right?

His back was throbbing. Had that dislocated something?

Encke glanced back up at her, knowing that she had either done that to just get him away from her, or to gain the upper hand back. If it was the second one she was looking for, Encke was determined to not let her have that.

If it was the first one, well, Encke would be fine if she just left.

Lifting his free hand weakly, he gasped back a, "Full Ionization!"