Wiping a hand across her brow, Pan stared down at the man she’d just dragged into some bushes. He probably wouldn’t have been so heavy if she’d knocked him out back here. But she’d jumped the gun in her eagerness to practice new skills. And now, here she was panting and sweaty because Mr Man here had gone all boneless and dead weight. She was definitely going to have to remember to be a little smarter in the future.

As it stood, judging by the rapidly forming bruise on his temple from the blow she’d landed, the corrupt senshi guessed that her unwitting voluntold was going to be out for a while. He was still breathing at least. For now. She hadn’t yet decided if that fact was going to change. Out of curiosity (and because there was no one to tell her no), Pan rifled through the man’s pockets. He was exceptionally normal, really. Not even a family that she could find evidence of. The most exciting thing was a medical marijuana card.

“Ugh. Boring.”

Checking his pulse and breathing again, Pan settled herself in the grass beside him and folded her hands primly in her lap. She wanted to savor this. Her first, unsupervised pull. Rakovanite was an exceptional teacher, so she had no doubts as to her theoretical knowledge. But the technical. That was where she doubted herself a little bit. Not that there was any reason to doubt. But the first few years in Wales and being told that ‘her kind’ couldn’t do things like that was hard to dismiss. Had the Wales branch really taught her anything of value, though? She’d already come to them knowing how to fight. How to use her magic. They hadn’t been able to stop looking down their noses at her long enough to even teach proper Negaverse team work.

It was no wonder she was still rough around the edges given that. Therefore, everything they said she couldn’t do, she could. And would. ******** them.

Closing her eyes, she reached out a hand and rested it lightly on the man’s chest, simply feeling him breathing and using it as a means to relax herself. Only once she felt calm and just disconnected enough did she focus on finding the way into his chest, her hand slipping past his skin and bone and muscle towards the small, pulsing warmth of his starseed. She allowed his fingertips to stroke it once before withdrawing her hand and opening her eyes. Looking at her hand and then at the man’s chest, Pan marveled again at whatever magic was at work here. No blood, no mess. Starseed theft wasn’t even on law enforcements’ radar. All they ever saw was someone who’d passed from exposure or old age or something equally mundane. Sometimes people just dropped dead. It was all very sad and utterly lacking in mystery.

Feeling more confident, Pan closed her eyes again, this time reaching in much more quickly and wrapping her fingers around the starseed and squeezing. Even unconscious, her victim hissed softly in pain. It was all so fascinating, really. She sat for a moment, debating before letting go once more. Was she really ready to take someone’s life and soul like that? In a fight, certainly. But this was just some regular, boring human. He’d never make a difference to either side. He simply existed. And judging by the contents of his pockets, his existence wasn’t even that interesting. As far as she was concerned, all this guy did was take up space. Still, there was one last thing she could check before deciding.

Taking his phone from his pocket, she thumbed it on and groaned. The idiot didn’t even have any security measures set up to lock the silly thing. Well, whatever. It just made snooping easier.

As she sat and thumbed through his texts and photos, Pan allowed herself to feel disgust. d**k pics, mopey attempts at poetry that would make an emo child roll their eyes and text conversations with their weed dealer. Guy was an intellectual void.
Glancing from phone to face, she snorted. “Buddy, I was half hoping to find something that would make you a little likable. But you’re just eeeuuugh. The d**k pics don’t even make you interesting. They’re just sad. Really. Really sad.”

Tossing phone and wallet into the bushes, Pan considered her next move. She wore gloves, so she didn’t have to worry about fingerprints. Any hair she shed wouldn’t yield anything because Glamour. Plus, how many chicks with black hair were in this city? If she left a body, sure the giant bruise on his temple was distressing, but people fell all the time. People got into fights all the time.

The only remarkable thing about this guy’s passing would be that it was outside in the park.

Her last thought galvanized her. Standing up, Pan stretched and popped her back before crouching and sliding her hand into his chest. Seizing his starseed, she took a deep breath before yanking it out. Then, straightening up, she turned and began to walk off. He would die peacefully and painlessly and barely be a footnote in the next morning’s news report.

Pan considered everything and decided that overall, tonight had been wildly successful. She could pull starseeds. It was easy. Well, doing it to an unconscious human was easy. She wanted to try it against someone fighting back. A senshi or a knight. She thought about her last outting with Rakovanite and snarled. Definitely a knight. Preferably after beating them down into a pulp and making sure they knew everything while it happened. Yes, that would be the next goal.

As she walked, she admired the starseed. It was quite pretty. Whether she kept it for herself or turned it in was a decision for another time. For now, she was content to admire the thing. It wasn’t every day that she got to hold someone’s literal soul in her hand after all.

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