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Blarney felt like he was losing his mind. Maybe he was, a little bit. He'd never been this excited, or felt this useless, about anything before - he was full of ideas that everyone was so quick to tell him were terrible or impossible, but he couldn't find it in himself to actually snuff out the hope that they were wrong. That there was a way to do the things he wanted to do: give Order some organization, develop a list of rules that both sides of this stupid war could abide by (how hard was it to not kidnap people??), and maybe, if they were extremely lucky, find a way to call a cease-fire that didn't depend on a giant space-snake bearing down on all of them.

He was just one person. Even Aruna, who wanted to help him, was looking at him the way people looked at kids who said they wanted to be president or an astronaut when they grew up - like he was cute to dream so big, but eventually, the real world would catch up with him and he'd set aside the childish fantasy he was living in. Everyone who'd been doing this a while, from Celadon and Aruna up to Mr. V, they all seemed - so tired. It was so hard not to let their exhaustion and fear creep up into his own heart. They couldn't just let evil out-last them. Evil was corrupting cats, for pity's sake, and if that wasn't enough to spark anyone's rage beyond whatever tiredness or anxiety they had, well, Blarney didn't even know what to tell them.

He was just one person, but he had magic. Sort of. Not magic to attack with, but magic nonetheless. How could they all still be so rigid in their ideas of what was possible when magic was literally real?

Blarney sighed to himself as he leapt onto the next rooftop - he was distracted. He either needed to focus up or go home; he wouldn't be any good to anyone like this. Maybe he should call someone for backup--someone to talk to, ramble at, might help get some of this frustration out of his brain.

He was just lifting his ring to message Halle, or Aruna, or someone, he hadn't gotten that far yet, when he heard the strangled half-yell from somewhere below him, followed by a sound that was becoming a little too familiar: a body hitting the ground.

It was about this time that Blarney realized what else was bothering him: there was a bad guy around. A big one.

Don't do all the stupid things I did, Aruna was always telling him. But--if this bad guy was hurting a civilian--which it would be since he didn't sense any other good guys nearby--then wasn't it on Blarney to save them? Or at least try to save them?

He couldn't run. Not yet. Not without at least trying to do the right thing.

So, without looking down or in any way allowing himself to think it over any further, Blarney ran for the edge of the roof and jumped down, aiming with his stick for the bad guy energy signature below - maybe, maybe, maybe, he could get lucky, knock the bad guy out, grab the innocent and book it.

As plans go it wasn't the most filled-out, but, hey - it had worked before, hadn't it?

Okay, partial credit. He had in fact hit the owner of the bad guy signature, but not hard enough - or maybe human bad guys (as opposed to monsters) were built a little tougher. Either way, he was in it now, with a fully conscious and annoyed bad guy staring him down in a way that Blarney did not like.

Nor was Blarney a fan of the very pointy weapon pointed in his general direction, but he wouldn't let that show on his face. He swallowed and straightened up, holding his stick out defensively between them.

"I don't need magic to know you're a bad guy," Blarney said, hoping he sounded braver than he felt, "and I don't need magic to know you should stop hurting innocent people."

Here, Blarney paused, eyes flitting between the offender and the victim. "But we don't have to get violent," he continued, carefully. "I'll just take them," he said, nodding his head toward the victim, without taking his eyes off the villain, "and leave you be. This doesn't have to lead to bloodshed."

Blarney couldn't help but glance at the sickle again. Dang it, why had he gone and mentioned blood?

Blarney tightened his grip on his stick and gritted his teeth, offended on such a visceral level that he almost just reached out and whacked the guy across the face for the implication.

But he didn't! Barely, but he didn't.

"Of course not," he said, though it came out as more of a snarl. "But if you see someone doing something bad on like - a legal morality level, that doesn't mean you have to - do that to them," Blarney said, gesturing to the unconscious civilian. "It means you, like, call the police or something. You can't try to convince me that you're some kinda--like--vigilante or something, only going after the bad civilians." Blarney hoped he sounded more confident than he felt - as he spoke, he realized that it was entirely possible that not only was that what this guy was telling him, but that it might be true.

Then what?

They still didn't deserve to be drained, or have their soul sucked out their nose or whatever, but...

"What did he do?" Blarney asked, teeth still grit. "What did he do to make you decide he deserved--this?"

Blarney let out an entirely undignified yelp when - a wolf fell from the sky??? He probably jumped a foot in the air, and he was still holding his little stick out as if it would be anything more than a fetch toy to the giant, before he realized the wolf wasn't going for him - it was going for the villain in front of him. Belatedly, he sensed the wolf's aura: powerful. Powerful good.

"Wh-what?" Blarney asked, stunned, as the Negaverse agent disappeared from thin air, right out from under him. "I mean--I mean, no, I'm--I'm fine," Blarney said. "Th--thank you?" Blarney blinked up at him. "I'm--you're...Fang, I take it? I'm--I'm Blarney," he said, because he didn't actually know what else to say.

"Thank you," he said belatedly, heat rising to his face. "Um--can you help this guy?" Blarney darted over to the unconscious civilian, still giving the Senshi a wide berth in spite of himself, because everything in Blarney was screaming predator very big animal run away but - he knew, consciously, that Fang just wanted to help, and that moreover if he was a predator, Blarney and presumably this civilian were not his prey.

"Or--or I can call the police or an ambulance," he added, a slight frown creasing his face. "That guy--he said that this guy wasn't an innocent, but I don't...I don't know what he did...or if that guy was just lying," he said, frown deepening. "Should we take him to the hospital?"

Blarney blinked, reassured in spite of himself that the wolf-man seemed to have some kind of medical understanding, or at least lots of experience with people who had been energy-drained.

He thought about insisting on staying - he'd gotten himself into this mess and it felt...bad...to just leave someone else with a semi-conscious civilian. And he felt a bit bad for the civilian, waking up to a literal alien looming over him.

On the other hand. Fang was telling him to go, and Blarney was - more than a little bit intimidated, just by the sheer size and strength of the Senshi before him, and he didn't want to tussle with him. If he was taking the situation over...

"If you're sure," Blarney said doubtfully. "Um--thank you?" Blarney added, halfway turned. "For--for getting that guy to go away. He was probably about to smush me like a bug, honestly. So--I'm Blarney, Page of Earth, by the way, and--just, thank you. Let me know if you ever need anything, okay? Thank you, again." Blarney gave Fang a little smile, and then the civilian gave another loud groan and Blarney decided it was best to get while the going is good.

"I'll see you around! Thank you again!" Blarney said, before he hopped his way back up onto the rooftop and back into the dark of the night.