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The Fireflies (6) : In the warm summer nights, little glowing lights begin to bob and dart through the city. Fireflies are mating, so this isn't uncommon in itself; in the past few days you've probably seen hundreds of fireflies. What makes these lights so unique is that they seem to change color; you might see a blue one, a green one, a red one. They flicker randomly, and something just seems off with them. If you come into contact with one, you will find yourself with a strange electric jolt. They cannot be caught, and will flicker away if you pursue too aggressively. This isn’t the first time they’ve appeared in Destiny City, but no one’s been able to tell where they came from or where they’re going. No matter how quickly you chase them, they always seem to disappear before you can find any answers.
Weissite pressed his back against the tough bark of a sturdy tree. He cradled his arm close to his chest. Clenched tightly in his hand, a gem. A few meters away, mostly obscured by the scattered tree trunks and branches between them, a body.
A part of him expected it to get up and move.
Because it still didn't seem possible that one little crystal that he could so easily reach out and grab straight from someone's chest could actually hold the power of life and death in it. And this... wasn't a turn he'd expected the night to take. He'd already accomplished what he'd set out to do for the night, taken what energy he'd needed and was ready to turn in. It was just after he'd called for retrieval that another aura pricked to life on the radar of his senses. Weissite expected it would leave him alone. Why chase? But follow, it did. Find him, it did.
And when they were face to face, standing in the secluded area of some park's outskirts, Weissite was surprised that it was a teenager, a boy maybe fifteen or sixteen, glowering at him and snarling at him for rejecting the path of justice. The Chaos was a poison, and those caught in its grasp needed to be freed by whatever means necessary.
Weissite couldn't have said what the kid, a young senshi, thought he was going to accomplish, but given that no one was around to see Weissite send him home without a fight, that seemed like the best course of action. 'Please just leave. Go home. Don't go picking fights with people. That's what idiots do.'
He didn't listen. Why would one of them listen to him?
They'd scuffled.
Weissite knew how to fight. He could defend himself from one angry teenager without much issue, and his objective really hadn't been to hurt him, just make it obvious that this wasn't a winning battle for the little squirt. But the boy had been relentless, haphazardly throwing his weight around in tandem with some sort of sickness magic, and it simply didn't matter how many bruising punches Weissite landed on him. At one point, they had awkwardly gotten their arms hooked together, and as the boy jerked sidelong, Weissite heard before he felt the crrnnch of bones grinding in a way they shouldn't.
Then he'd just decided, in a single instant that he was done with the fight. The senshi was already off-balance, and when Weissite reached for him, there was no getting away from it. One small, gleaming gem in his palm, and one crumpled body on the ground.
He thought to return it. He should feel some kind of regret. It was just an angry child.
It reminded him, fleetingly- cabinets open, small legs poking from beneath his dining room table, spatters of blood across dingy linoleum, nails grabbing at him, digging into his arms, screaming, screaming, red, red red- And this boy was just not comparable to that. This felt like nothing compared to that time. It was almost like he was desensitized to it...
Weissite pushed himself to his feet, using his good arm to support his injured as he stumbled away from the support of the tree. Around him, specks of color flashed into existence. For a moment, he thought it was his vision going spotty, or maybe he was still seeing red- red, but they blinked in and out at harmonious intervals, pulling his gaze from the boy as delicate little glow bugs bobbed around him.
It probably wasn't good to allow them to overtake the thoughts at the forefront of his mind, leaving the body forgotten and ignored, but it felt easier that way. They were lovely and distracting...
And it would probably be seconds before his general arrived to get him out of here, anyway.
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