It's dark in Uminari tonight.
It's dark because about twenty minutes ago, a strangely localized but incredibly powerful electrical storm in the form of a very angry dragon took out half the local power grid. The lights aren't going to be back on in a hurry after that.
Makoto is still angry.
Oh, exhaustion has taken a lot of the edge off her anger, but even expending all of her power in such a reckless display hasn't succeeded in burning it all the way out. Her strides are still long and sharp with agitated energy as she heads for home through the darkened streets, silently fuming.
Well, someone's out and not looking to make Makoto's day any worse. Of everyone he'd met of Ami's friends, Makoto and Takashi had gotten off on the most wrong foot. And it had only gotten worse from there. Now, not quite so bound as to avoid getting in arguments with her, the fact that he'd found her walking in clear anger only set gears turning in his head.
And that's why the angry Makoto finds a smirking, self-assured and smug Takashi Agera standing in her way. Not standing near her, not wandering the dark streets of Uminari, but positioned directly to stand in her way.
"I guess we don't have to keep pretending to be nice to each other anymore, do we." he asks.
She jerks immediately to a halt the moment she sees him up ahead of her, even before he's spoken. The sight - and his words - do nothing to improve Makoto's mood. Her entire stance is that of someone on guard: feet planted, shoulders drawn up in tension, hands curled closed at her sides.
This, she absolutely did not need tonight.
But she tries, with dubious success, to keep her voice something resembling even when she says, "That kind of depends on you."
Takashi balls his own hands up into fists. "I don't know. I think we're probably destined to fight, don't you?" he asks, looking sternly at her. "We've never gotten along, and we appear to have two entirely different viewpoints on what would be best for someone we both care about." he says, leaning back.
"Besides, I think I'd like to punch you about as much as you'd like to punch me. I'm sure you were involved with all of this." he says, his eyes glaring at her accusatorially. "Because for a long time everything was fine, and now it's not fine. I should've never agreed to let you and your goofy boyfriend join us at that rink." he snarls.
"You know he was on my radar for doing interesting things with dark energy, but I guess he gets a pass because you're dating him now. Hypocrite."
If Takashi was looking for a button to push, bringing up Nephrite has certainly accomplished it. Makoto is immediately bristling, meeting Takashi's hostility with a glare that fairly sparks with fury.
"Don't talk about Nephrite," she snaps. "You want to know the difference between him and you? He stopped. And when he apologized for the shitty things he did, he meant it."
Mako lifts a hand, jabs a pointing finger in the air towards Takashi. "If you thought everything was fine, you weren't paying close enough attention."
Takashi can tell when he's hit a button, too. And he pushes it some more. "Well, after spending a few minutes alone with him I can see why you two are together. I guess Ami and I have our brains in common, and you and Nephrite have stubborness and thickheaddedness in common." he says. "And a lack of appreciation for your betters. That's the sort of thing that causes bad things to happen to you, you know. Overestimation of your own abilities."
Not that Takashi would know anything about that personally.
"You know what? I did mean it. I was sorry I let your attitude control me. But you were just so damned infuriating. And you haven't changed a bit." he says, and he takes the first step towards her pointing finger.
"I wanted to make her happy. And I was happy. And then instead of letting herself be happy she was constantly fretting, and I tried to tell her I was happy and she didn't need to do anything other than be with me. But she kept looking for a problem, and I'm sure her friends like you were more than happy to give her one!" he shouts, a different kind of angry, a hurt kind of internal angry.
"You don't even know what I'm capable of, the sort of power I wield, the plans I could've made. But I didn't. I tried to be all the things the so-called heroes talk about. A waste of time. Just like us pretending to tolerate each other."
"Can you even hear yourself talking?" Makoto demands, exasperated and thoroughly out of patience. "Stop acting so persecuted! If you want to throw blame around for things not working out, take a long look in a mirror. Nobody had to make up problems to get between you and Ami-chan. The problems were there. You wanna know why? Because right from the start, what you wanted and what Ami-chan wanted were different things."
The breath hisses in through her teeth as Mako makes a mosty fruitless effort to steady herself. "Ami-chan's worried about you. Not that you're going to listen to me, since you've already decided I'm an idiot." Coming to a decision, she starts walking again, making to simply stride past Takashi and continue on her way home. "I don't have time to pick a fight with you right now."
Takashi shakes his head. "All I wanted was for both of us to be happy. I wanted someone who could actually understand me, and I wanted to give her someone who could understand her. I helped her wherever I could, she helped me. But I guess that just makes our relationship toxic and wrong to you?" he says, growing more and more upset, visibly.
"I'm worried about her, too. Who knows what other thing you're going to tell her to avoid - what if you'd have her avoiding me before Kunzite - who you also now trust - nearly killed her with his poison? If I wasn't who I was and I wasn't able to be there for her she'd be dead."
"I never decided you were an idiot - I like giving Ami-chan's judgement the benefit of the doubt. I'm just absolutly sure you're doing idiotic things." he says, glaring. "Will it make you feel better if I pick the fight, then?" he asks as she tries to walk by him, stepping into her way. "That's how you heroes work, right? Riding to save the day from the bad guy? Fine, I'll play my part." he says, raising up his fists. Takashi Agera does not look like the greatest melee combat threat in the world though, to be sure.
She stops again when Takashi steps into her way, and now Makoto folds her arms over her chest. Chin lifted, she regards his upraised fists with a supremely unimpressed expression that almost certainly would not ever have crossed her face if she were not worn out, angry, and really not thinking particularly clearly.
"You're missing the point again," she states flatly. "And I'll be honest, after the way today has gone I'm not in the mood to keep arguing with you about it. If you wanna take a shot at me, fine. If it means you'll shut up and stop trying to claim you should be treated the same as people who gave up dark energy and regret the things they did while they were hopped up on it, go ahead and take a shot."
Takashi glares at her. "I don't respect anyone who gives up the power that they need to achieve their goals." he says. "And people who can't tell the difference between people who can't control energy they were given, and someone who's been born with it his whole life and understands it implicitly." he says, further.
Takashi seems lean back a bit and laugh. "So far that reason, your deal's bad news. What is it with people and giving me bad deals lately and acting like I should be glad to have them?" he asks, before he throws a decidedly clumsy punch at Makoto.
Makoto doesn't reply, this time, just looks even more unimpressed - she doesn't actually go so far as to roll her eyes when he talks about power, but she looks kind of like she wants to.
She just stands, breathing leashed aggravation - until he throws that punch.
It's clumsy, telegraphed, obvious a mile away. Even worn out as she is, it's nothing at all for Makoto to snap her hand up, catching Takashi's fist with contemptuous ease.
Except--
Rather than the expected smack of his fist into her palm, what meets Mako's hand is more like a splorch, a jet of thick fluid. Her eyes widen in surprise and alarm, but by then it's already too late; her hand is engulfed in an instant, and she can already feel the energy draining out of her.
"What the--" Fury sparks fresh in her eyes again as she recoils, yanking her hand back, the other hand already grabbing for her transformation pen.
'Takashi' smiles a strange smile that's way too wide to fit on a human face, and the liquid dark energy construct just flows forward, flows at her, trying to wrap her in that sort of draining gunk.
"Case in point. Underestimating me? Idiotic thing to do. I mean, for one thing, I'm a genius. For another thing, I punch a lot better than -that-." Takashi says. Or is it Takashi? He's in a white labcoat and he looks a little strange, but it's still clearly Takashi.
Makoto is definitely cursing a few of her decisions right now, or would be if she weren't a bit too busy to spare the conscious thought. She certainly isn't looking unimpressed any more; she backpedals several more steps, shaking her hand with sharp, vigorous motions in an increasingly futile effort to wrench herself free of the viscous dark energy goop that's ensnared it.
It's a delaying tactic only, and she knows it. It's not even a particularly good delaying tactic, but if she can just buy herself a few seconds to fumble out her henshin pen with her off-hand--
"I told Ami-chan you seemed like the kind to lose your shit if you didn't get what you wanted," she tosses out. "You're doing a crappy job of proving me wrong--"
Takashi walks up behind the oozy, ink-like construct. He's not attacking, though he's interested and curious to see if Jupiter lashes out. He's watching her in a way that's probably annoyingly close - and somewhat curious, more than anything.
"I dunno, I think I have my shit rather firmly found. If I had turned into a monster, or attacked you all pointlessly, I might consider you right. But as it stands, no, no. I've planned this. I know who my enemies are, I know what my goals are."
"But in the sense that you probably mean it, as in using negative energy, I think it's only fair to share with you - this is the real me. It was Ami-chan who put a damper on it. Without warmth, the only thing left is cold. Without external forces, I've just returned to my default. The distinction is important, but probably lost on you right now."
"In any case, I certainly don't intend to kill you, at least, so take some solace in that, I suppose. Actually, what I'd really like to do is give you a bit greater insight, since if you're not an idiot then you must just lack perspective."
She's still trying to pull free of the dark goo, for all the good that's doing her... but Makoto's eyes track Takashi closely as he moves up from behind the construct, bright and watchful.
"Sorry," she tosses back without a moment's hesitation, "is that supposed to make me regret not pushing Ami-chan to keep going out with you against her own judgment? This is not helping your case!"
Even as she snaps out that last word, she's surging into motion, a sudden shift of her stance that becomes a kick driving towards his gut.
Takashi is, well, gloating right now. It's the time when Takashi is at his most vulnerable - when he's just bathing in the feel of his own superiority.
That superiority is literally knocked right out of him by Makoto's foot, and he doubles over for a moment. "See, this is what I get for being nice." he says, groaning. "You don't even care that I'm trying to do this as painless as possible?"
"And before you say 'why do you have to drain my energy' or something else, let me pre-empt that question..." he begins, taking off his labcoat slowly. He throws it into the air, where it floats suddenly - still and frozen - and then a gateway opens within it - to a strange dark place. The negative energy leaking out of it is overwhleming.
"Because 'Kino-san, I'd like to take you on a trip to the Dusk Zone' isn't a phrase I think you'd take well, and if you're not coated in negative energy, something in here is gonna think you're a tasty snack." he says, holding his gut.
"And now I can't even just casually walk you into it cause you're gonna try to kick me again."
<<SCHWARZES LOCH!>> his device calls out, and the tear in dimensions begins to roar with a fierce strength, like a bathtub drain suddenly unplugged, trying to drag her (and everything else nearby) in. The negative energy leaking out of the tear empowers whatever's currently trying to subsume Makoto, too.
Mako gets a moment of satisfaction from the solid impact of her foot into Takashi's midsection and the air it takes out of his gloating. She meets his groaned complaint with a defiant lift of her chin.
Unfortunately, the satisfaction only lasts for those few moments, until the gateway opens and the flood of negative energy coming out of it drops the bottom out of Makoto's stomach. For the first time tonight, she feels a cold lick of genuine fear move up her spine.
No more time or breath to spare for arguing - as the dimensional tear drags at her, she throws all of her remaining strength into fighting both it and the construct that's trying to engluf her, thrashing and kicking fiercely to get free.
If she'd managed to transform, it might even have been enough.