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Ryan showed up at the place that Emmett had asked him to, only slightly late. He'd powered down about a block away, utilizing his extra bounce in that form to make it there faster after his earlier scuffle with Marialite. Ugh, he couldn't believe he had some kind of shounen anime rival with someone.

Inhaling deeply, he stopped near the entrance of the closed shop (of what kind, he wasn't sure), and peered around for Emmett. Meeting in weird spots like this was something he was already used to in powered form, and then again from Emmett. He liked hanging out in creepy places, which Ryan didn't get at all, but he was willing to accommodate. After all, Emmett had been doing more than enough to make up for being a total piece of s**t when they were kids and teens.

Emmett emerged from the alleyway as soon as he saw Ryan and gave him a bright grin. "Hey bro!" he greeted, "good to see you." He gave Ryan a bear hug, which was returned.

"Okay, who's this mystery man you want me to meet?" Ryan asked, wiggling his eyebrows and giving Emmett a light punch to the upper arm, "I still can't believe you're into men after all this time."

Emmett laughed sheepishly, rubbing where he was hit as if he'd been gravely wounded. "Yeah, well... I think our parents didn't help that anyway. But, y'know, this guy isn't who I'm... I mean, I wouldn't mind, but like, that's... There's complications."

He shook his head to clear it. "Anyway, he should be here in a minute... So lemme tell you, we're like, this secret society of superheros."

Ryan's eyebrows climbed and he grinned. Oh, how cute. Emmett was like him! He wondered if Emmett was a Senshi he already knew, or perhaps a Knight. He kept quiet on him already being one, though, just to see how Emmett would react. It would probably be hysterical to see his face when he realized he'd been beaten to the punch.

Emmett frowned a bit, pouting. "You don't believe me, huh? Well, my man'll be here soon. He'll be able to show you what I mean and make you one of us, y'know? It'll be so cool."

And still, Ryan suppressed a laugh. Oh, this would be so good when the mystery person showed up.

Emmett grinned back at Ashanite when he appeared. Oh, this was going to be so much fun.

Ryan, on the other hand, decided this wasn't going to be very much fun anymore, when he turned and recognized the outfit Ashanite wore. Coming up behind him had already creeped him out, but... Now his face drained of all color and he took half a step back, breath seizing in his throat.

Negaverse. My brother's an Agent and that's a General and oh God I'm so ********, I can't—I shouldn't reveal myself but I need to protect myself AHH—

"Monoceros Power, Make-Up!" he said with as much viciousness as he could muster up, pulling his pen out.

The white bodice stuck out starkly to Emmett, who was briefly stunned by this turn of events—this was not how this was supposed to happen, ******** he became Arsenolite in a second.

"How could you—" both brothers started to yell at each other, but then Monoceros cut himself off to scream a spell.

"Quill Burst!" ********, he was so low on spells. ********, ********, ******** hissed in pain when a few quills stuck in his body, but most bounced off when he twisted just the right way. He looked to check on Ashanite for a brief moment.

Much easier was an understatement.

Axinite didn’t respond with the tablet, he just showed up. Immediately. Like he was sitting at his desk with his tablet open, just in case anyone had an emergency. Which, wasn’t untrue.

He looked a little more run down than usual, like a nap would have been very much in his favor, but he wasn’t slowing down. He bowed his head politely to Ashanite, to Arsenolite. He looked at Monoceros for a few seconds, with recognition.

He knew him. He remembered him from the battle.

He should have showed up smiling, should have showed up with kind words and gentle reassurances to ease him into the Negaverse. It took him a little longer to muster any of it, but he managed.

“It’s for the best,” he assured the Senshi. “Things aren’t going to go very well for the White Moon, soon. You’ll be safer with us.” He eyed Ashanite’s hand and asked, “Would you like to do this?”

He seemed like he must have already had a grip on his starseed; it wouldn’t have been much effort to just channel the energy into Ashanite and guide him through the corruption.

Axinite was, as always, a reliable presence, and Ashanite gave him a nod in return. A slight frown ghosted across his face, though he quickly smoothed it away--it seemed worrisome that Axinite looked visibly run down.

Perhaps they could speak after this, not that it was necessarily Ashanite's business how the General-Sovereigns conducted themselves.

The Senshi was struggling, and Ashanite bit back a sigh. It was Arsenolite's job to try the reassurances--he was here to help with the corruption, and that was it. So he met Axinite's eyes, and nodded.

"I would be honored, sir," he said. He had performed corruptions before, on new recruits--Larimar, Leifite, Lapis Lazuli (unfortunately)--but he had never assisted a General-Sovereign in bringing someone over. It would be a unique experience, he suspected.

"Axinite is right, you know," Ashanite said. "And there's no shame in making the choice that ensures your survival. Which, I promise--this will."

But even if Monoceros kept struggling, Chaos would take him. Chaos always took what it wanted.

Arsenolite nodded at Axinite, swallowing. He hoped Axinite was right. He had faith in his General-King, of course, but there was always that little voice of anxiety in the back of his mind. He wanted so much for Monoceros to be okay. Even if this wouldn't let him be Ryan anymore.

Even though it was clear that Monoceros didn't want anything to with Arsenolite right now, he squeezed his brother's hand gently.

"It'll be okay," he said softly.

Monoceros wanted to puke, but he was too afraid the motion would cause Ashanite to rip out his starseed or accidentally crush it. He wanted to live, damnit. He'd get out of this mess somehow if he just lived.

The Chaos began to flow and his breath caught for a moment before he started to scream. ********, this hurt. It hurt so bad. He didn't want it, weakly tried pushing it away, but it was overwhelming him too quickly. God, he wished Kerberos were here.

Kerberos. Kerberos? In his final moments, an impulsive thought seized him and he went with it.

"Kerberos!" he screamed, praying that an echo of some kind would let his new self hear it. A hint of some kind.

The darkness washed over him, and he blacked out.

The person who woke was disoriented, in aftershocks of pain, and had no idea who he was. Monoceros. Okay. A name wasn't much, but it was a bit more than he had a second ago. Why did he hurt so much?

"...Who's Kerberos?" Arsenolite tried to whisper to Ashanite.

Kerberos? That sounded important. Monoceros blinked hard. He didn't know anything about anything yet, but something told him to hold on to that name. And keep it quiet. He had no idea what for, nothing was coming up, except that this situation seemed a bit odd, and that name sounded dreadfully important.

"Wha..." he mumbled, voice hoarse for a reason he didn't know. He realized his eyes were closed again and he slowly opened them. "Where.... who...?"

Throughout all of it, Axinite stayed rooted to his spot. He gave all he could to Ashanite, and when the General extracted his hand so too did Axinite relinquish his grip. He fell to the background when his role was done. He had a hidden talent in him; the overwhelming energy signature was the only thing that gave him away but he managed to take a single step backwards to give them space.

He had no doubt that they had a plan, and he was there for reassurance or support if they needed it. He caught Ashanite’s eye and nodded. His hands folded in front of him and he watched, taking in the scene before them.

Axinite was exhausted. This took more out of him than he was willing to admit; he was a little paler than usual, and it seemed like willpower might have had a heavy hand in keeping him steadied and upright.

He wasn’t going to leave until he was sure that everything was taken care of. With so many Chaos signatures there, he doubted that someone would try to attack–but if they did...

He’d be there to make sure they were safe.

Ashanite was not unused to being hit on, but it being some of the first words out of a new corrupt's mouth was...

.....Well, Victoria hadn't flirted with him immediately, so it was still sort of new.

"It's good to see you're adjusting well," Ashanite said, and he was proud of himself for keeping his voice even and steady. He carefully tilted Monoceros fully upright, and looked back over to Axinite. "Thank you, sir," he said. "I should be able to get Monoceros, Arsenolite, and myself back to Negaspace--if you have the time," though really, Ashanite meant if you have the energy, because it was all too clear to him that Axinite was standing primarily by willpower and naught else, "we can start helping out new recruit integrate. I can handle much of it myself, though--not exactly my first time--and simply bring you what's left in the morning, if you'd prefer."

As discreetly as he could, though, using the turn of his body to block it from Monoceros and Arsenolite's view, he produced an orb of energy and offered it to Axinite. No reason to draw too much attention to the exhaustion of one of their leaders, but Ashanite wasn't about to leave him exhausted.

Arsenolite grinned. This was awesome. He was going to take such good care of Monoceros now.

"Monoceros, everyone is gonna love you," he assured.

Monoceros... wasn't too sure about that, for some reason. After his initial dumbass statement, something in him felt... Strange. Broken. Whatever jovialness he'd had after he woke had faded, leaving something cold and numb in its place.

But he nodded anyway, to at least give the appearance of someone normal. He felt... blank.

Arsenolite clapped him on the shoulder and looked to Ashanite. "Bring us home, boss?"